LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







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Uncle John Vassar; 



OR, 



THE FIGHT OF FAITH. 

BY Hi/ NEPHEW, 

REV. t: e! vassar. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 

BY 

REV. A. J. GORDON, D. D. 



"A good soldier of Jesus Christ." 2 Tim. 2 : 

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FROM THE PRESS OF 

ZHS AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK, 

FOR THE FAMILY. 
7 



3 V ^i *s 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 

_M 



COPYRIGHT, 1879, 
BY WALTER B. VASSAR. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction page 7 

CHAPTER I. 
The Recruit — Parentage — Early Life 23 

CHAPTER II. 
Mustered In — Conversion - - 28 

CHAPTER III. 
The Drill — Christian Discipline -- 33 

CHAPTER IV. 
Assigned to Service — Goes West - 42 

CHAPTER V. 
Off on Furlough — Leaves Tract Society Work for a Time 53 

CHAPTER VI. 
Going to the Front — Recommissioned for Army Service 82 

CHAPTER VII. 
New Campaigns — Work among Freedmen and Miners - - 112 

CHAPTER VIII. 
All along the Lines — General Evangelistic Endeavors 131 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Weapons in the Fight — Personal Characteristics - 159 

CHAPTER X. 
The Veteran Disabled — Laid aside by Sickness 1S4 

CHAPTER XI. 
Honorably Discharged — Death and Burial ---- 189 

CHAPTER XII. 
Service Reviewed — Memorial Services — Press Notices 199 



NTRODUCTION 



We are quite accustomed to think of religious heroes like 
other heroes, as belonging almost exclusively to a past age. 
We read with admiration of the lives and labors of such men 
of God as Rutherford, and Baxter, and Flavel, and McCheyne, 
and Brainerd, and Henry Martyn, and Judson, and we say 
mentally at least, " Ah yes, but we have no such workers for 
God in our age." Doubtless we have but few of them, for 
they are confessedly rare in any period. But it is our convic- 
tion, deepened and confirmed by several years of intimate ac- 
quaintance, that the servant of God whom this volume com- 
memorates was not a whit behind any one of these great soul- 
winners whom we have named, either in ardent zeal, or sin- 
gleness of consecration, or exalted piety. I should not make 
this statement were I not sure that there are scores of the 
most thoughtful Christians, both among the ministers and the 
laymen of our churches, who will be ready at once to endorse 
it. 

To one who never met him it would be quite impossible to 
describe the impression which he instantly made on meeting 
him. He gave one literally a powerful electric shock the 
moment he touched him. There was such intensity of zeal, 
accompanied with such a magnetic manner, that the impres- 
sion was instantaneous and quite overwhelming. It was the 



6 INTR OD UCTION. 

lightning-like penetration of a piety that was always charged 
to the highest pitch. Indeed, it was the first question that 
occurred to one, how it could be possible for a man to live in 
such a tense and highly-wrought condition of religious fervor. 
Yet there was very little apparent variation of temperature. 
He travelled from Maine to Florida, from the Atlantic coast 
to the Pacific, on foot, on horseback, by rail, and by steamer, 
resting not in summer or in winter, in the one intense, eager 
pursuit of lost souls ; and wherever you found him there was 
the same burning zeal speaking out in his looks and in his 
words. He was always moving in his work at a pace much 
nearer to a run than to a walk. In his humility he named 
himself " The Shepherd's Dog," and I often thought when I 
saw him, of the aptness of the name in another sense than 
that which he intended. For he was not only wonderfully 
successful in bringing home lost sheep to the good Shepherd, 
but he followed them with the keen scent and the swift pace 
of the hound upon the track of his game, tiring not, resting 
not, till he had won the object of his pursuit. 

It may be permitted, in this introduction, penned by one 
who was privileged to know this good man intimately and to 
see much of his work, to point out the most striking traits of 
his religious character, to indicate his methods of working, 
and to draw therefrom such lessons as may be useful to 
Christian workers. 

In the first place I recall with deepest interest his singular 
consecration and prayerfulness. Is it possible for one to live 
for a single end — the glory of God in the salvation of souls, 
and to pursue that end with all the ardor and enthusiasm with 
which the merchant pursues a fortune or the politician an 
office ? It is good to find in this skeptical age one life that 
can answer that question without any qualification. This 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

man knew nothing else, thought of nothing else, asked for 
nothing else, but this one thing. When he came occa- 
sionally to work among my flock, he at once took the 
whole church and people on his heart, and began to travail for 
them in prayer, as though his very life depended on the issue. 
This intercession continued " night and day with tears " as 
long as he was with us. He never said indeed that he had 
prayed all night. But I could hear him again and again 
breaking forth in the darkness "with strong crying" unto 
God, and I knew what the burden was. It was this congress- 
tion, strangers to him till to-day. It was this flock, not one of 
whom had he ever seen till now. So Christlike was the love 
of this man, whose field was the world, that each lost soul was 
just as dear to him as every other. With a soul knit into 
unbroken fellowship with Christ, he had become "baptized 
into a sense of all conditions." He did not love men with the 
natural heart any longer. He could say with Paul, " God is 
my witness, how greatly I long after you all in the heart of 
Jesus Christ." This habitual prayfulness was something so 
wonderful that I wish to emphasize it as furnishing the true 
secret of his life. A lady at whose house he spent a night 
told me that in the morning her Roman-catholic servant-girl 
came down, and with an astonished expression said, "Mrs. 

B , that old man was praying all night ; I could not sleep 

it made me feel so. But I should never be afraid with such 
a man in the house." It was impossible that he should not 
pray thus. It was with him as with the devoted John Welch, 
of whom Fleming says that he used to make his nights such 
Gethsemane seasons that his family had often to remonstrate 
with him for losing his sleep ; when he would reply, " Ah, but 
I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, and I know 
not how it is with many of them." And all through the day 



8 1NTR OD UCTION. 

the intercession went on. If he met with rebuffs or discour- 
agements, he would gird up the loins of his mind with a silent 
prayer, and then press on undaunted. If he had a moment to 
spare while waiting for dinner, he would snatch refreshment 
from his Bible, and then drop upon his knees for a few words 
with the great Life and Lover of his soul. And such was the 
unbroken tenor of his life for years. 

Another most impressive and instructive trait of his char- 
acter was his intense absorption in his labor, so that it was a 
real and abounding joy for him to do it. It is the truest test 
of one's devotion to his work, whether he is reluctant to lay 
it down when the hour comes for dining or sleeping. A most 
striking illustration of the Master's consuming zeal in labor- 
ing for the lost appears in his indifference to the claims of 
hunger and fatigue, as, " wearied with his journey," he sat on 
Jacob's well talking with the woman of Samaria. To him 
bodily hunger was not to be thought of, if he could satisfy 
his hunger for a soul's salvation. To him, the parching thirst 
begotten by a tropic noonday sun was nothing, if he could 
give to a famishing sinner to drink of the water of life, that 
she might never thirst. " Master, eat," was the urgent invita- 
tion of the disciples. " I have meat to eat that ye know not 
of," was his reply. And to their incredulous question, " Hath 
any man brought him aught to eat?" he replied, "My meat 
is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." 
That is a consecration to which very few probably attain, to 
be so utterly absorbed in holy work that the bread of service 
shall be sweeter than the bread of the table, and the meat of 
doing the Master's will shall be better than the meat of 
bodily food. 

The good man of whom we are speaking so loved the 
service of his Master that it was often quite impossible to 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

draw him away from it when the hour for dining came. He 
would constantly forget the claims of bodily hunger when 
engaged with an inquiring soul. He had often to be forced 
away from his work, by those who cared more for his physical 
needs than he himself could be made to care. Flavel tells 
how, in one of his rare seasons of communion with God, he 
became so absorbed in heavenly contemplation that he was 
lost to the flight of time, to hunger and to all outward things. 
It was literally so with this great worker's absorption in his toil. 
He forgot the flight of time ; he heard not the call to rest and 
refreshment ; he heeded not the gnawings of hunger. Indeed, 
he seemed at times entirely insensible to every earthly thing, 
in his overmastering and consuming desire to get the souls 
saved for which he was laboring. 

We do not say that such indifference to the claims of the 
body is to be commended to the imitation of all Christian 
workers. Undoubtedly we can serve Christ more efficiently, 
as a rule, to be punctiliously careful in attending to all the 
conditions of physical health and comfort. But it is inspiring 
to witness such an example of supreme devotion to the Mas- 
ter's business amid so many sad illustrations of working by 
measure, and timing service for Christ by the clock and the 
dinner-bell. There is a quaint passage on this point in Adam 
Bede, which we have never forgotten. " I can't abide," says 
the speaker, " to see men throw away their tools i' that way, 
the minute the clock begins to strike, as if they took no pleas- 
ure i' their work, and were afraid of doing a stroke too much. 
I hate to see a man's arm drop down as if he was shot, before 
the clock's fairly struck, just as if he 'd never a bit o' pride 
and delight in 's work. The very grindstone ull go on turn- 
ing a bit after you loose it." 

And is there not a serious thought here to be taken to 



i o INTR OD UCTION. 

heart? How many servants of God stop their work, however 
pressing it may be, when noontime comes ! How many 
ministers rush from their pulpits like relieved prisoners of toil 
the moment the first day of " vacation " arrives ! And how 
many, on the other hand, are so in the toil of whole-hearted, 
self-forgetful consecration, that they are borne on past the 
time of dinner, past the time of sleeping, past the allotted hour 
of recreation, when the interests of souls are at stake ? Un- 
doubtedly a great attainment lies yet before us — that of find- 
ing it really our meat to do the Master's will, as it was his 
meat to do the Father's will ; to feed so truly on the " hidden 
manna " that we can, if need be, put off, for a while, the claims 
of bodily hunger, to satisfy the more pressing claims of hunger 
and thirst after righteousness in those to whom the Lord has 
sent us with the "bread of life." 

It was I think in the work of personal conversation with 
the unconverted that Mr. Vassar did his greatest work, and 
exhibited the most remarkable power. The intensity and 
boldness of his appeals, the tenderness and pathos of his 
entreaty, the tireless patience of his struggle for conquest was 
something which I never saw approached, and which I now 
remember with the greatest admiration. That old Puritan 
phrase, "Closing in with the sinner," expresses what he 
invariably did when he approached the unconverted. He 
grappled with the soul like a spiritual athlete. His whole 
bearing was that of one who knew himself to be wrestling, 
" not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers." 
He had every weapon at instant command, and used each in 
turn as with the sharpest insight he saw what was needed. 
It was now the " terror of the Lord " and now " the love of 
Christ," now the freeness of salvation, now the certainty of 
" the wrath to come," all brought to bear with such tearful 



INTR 0L> UCTION. 1 1 

tenderness that the effect was often perfectly overwhelming. 
And I do not exaggerate, when I say that his subjects gener- 
ally had either to surrender or to flee, such was the vehemency 
of his approaches. What always struck me as most remark- 
able in his personal conversations was their absolute abrupt- 
ness. In scores of interviews of the sort which I have wit- 
nessed, I never once remember his introducing his subject 
with any preliminary remarks. He came at once to the theme. 
His first question, after the ordinary salutation, was generally 
the vital question, " My friend, will you kindly permit me to 
ask, have you been born again ?" 

This method I think he adopted deliberately, as having 
been proved by years of experience the wisest. Noticing the 
shock and revulsion which this abrupt approach sometimes 
produced, I used to regret that he was not more circuitous in 
his advances. But I confess that with larger experience I 
have changed my mind and come to the conclusion that this 
directness is one of the most vital conditions of success in 
personal conversation. It does not require long experience 
to teach one the danger of starting a train of general conver- 
sation when dealing with the unconverted. For such a current 
once started the tide may easily become so strong that it will 
be found exceedingly difficult to divert it into the desired 
channel. Indeed, if the person addressed desires to avoid 
the subject, he will often do his best to prevent this result, by 
keeping up a strain of rapid and distracting talk and even 
leading on if possible into light and trivial discussion, to turn 
aside from which into the subject of personal salvation will be 
far more abrupt and difficult than it would have been to strike 
the subject at the outset. 

We must remember that this personal dealing with men is 
often a duel of wills. And in this duel the strongest and most 



i2 INTRODUCTION. 

athletic will will be likely to conquer, other things being equal. 
Hence it is a fair question with the spiritual gladiator, how to 
get the advantage of his antagonist. He should adopt the 
best possible strategy, and aim to effect by his alertness and 
skill what he might fail to accomplish by main force. Hence 
John Vassar's method was to strike a man at once with the 
most direct and vital question which could be brought to bear. 
Instead of hinting by a lengthened introduction what he pro- 
posed to do, he did it before his subject had time to gather 
himself up or brace himself against the attack. And no 
sooner was the battle opened than it was followed up with the 
intensest rapidity, by appeal, and argument, and warning, and 
entreaty, all ending in a most fervent and melting plea at the 
throne of grace that the Spirit would seal his words to him who 
had heard them. 

The results were various, of course. The person address- 
ed was always stunned and startled, sometimes made angry ; 
but in multitudes of cases wounded into life. There was never 
the slightest tinge of severity, mark you, in the abruptness. 
If there was a tremendous grappling with the soul, it was a 
battle in which tears and entreaties were the prevailing weap- 
ons ; and no rebuffs or abuse could ever draw from him a 
single impatient utterance. It was not his harshness but his 
intense earnestness that so roused men. Indeed you can well 
imagine what would be the result for a man of this sort to go 
through some street in proud, cultivated, aristocratic Boston, 
ringing every door-bell and confronting every household with 
this great question of the new birth. And this is what he did 
repeatedly when he labored with me. I generally heard from 
his visits, and sometimes in anything but complimentary terms. 
But he left an impression which could not be shaken off, and 
from which fruit, in some cases, was gathered years after. In 



INTR OD UCTION. 



n 



a very appreciative notice of him by a well-known minister he 
speaks of the habit of going from house to house with his in- 
evitable question, and says, " I have known him to set a whole 
town in an uproar by this spiritual census-taking. But when 
his sub-soil ploughshare had turned a community upside down, 
then was the time for fruitful work." And that is true. The 
very offence which he so frequently gave, was often the open 
door into hearts hitherto hopelessly closed. 

I must refer again to the method of direct and immediate 
approach in dealing with souls, in order to emphasize its im- 
portance. I believe it to be the first and almost the highest 
condition of success in the work. When a timid and self-dis- 
trustful Christian engages with a resolute, bold, self-poised 
unbeliever, there is, humanly speaking, an immense disparity 
between them. The Christian standing on the word of God, 
and resting in the might of the Spirit, has a vantage ground of 
course, which no natural qualities can give a man. But never- 
theless there comes a grapple between mind and mind, between 
will and will, between purpose and purpose. The danger is 
not that the unbeliever will conquer the believer and bring 
him to his views. But there is danger that he will defeat him 
in his present purpose, that he will so swing him into the 
current of his stronger will, that he will so deflect him from 
his aim by the force of his stronger determination, as to thwart 
his efforts to deal with him regarding his soul. If we hold 
two globules of water on the finger, and then let them touch, 
one will drink up the other; and it is generally the larger 
that absorbs the smaller. If two minds come in contact, one 
will in like manner often completely appropriate and hold in 
its embrace the other. But here, while as a rule the stronger 
will win, it is certainly possible for the weaker to win — for the 
timid to sway the bold, for the humble to master the proud. 



1 4 INTR OD UCTION. 

And therefore the secret of victory lies, I believe, in this one 
thing more than in any other: celerity, a rapid deploying 
of the mental forces and a brisk and determined advance 
before the' stronger has had time to marshal his resources. 
This was the invariable method of our friend of whom I 
am speaking. This is the striking characteristic of Mr. 
Moody's conversations with the unconverted. It is all in the 
art of " stealing a march " on the sinner, to use a colloquial 
phrase. In Mr. Vassar's case I should use a still stronger 
phrase, only in a tropical sense. His habit was to stun a man 
at the first blow, and reason with him afterward. 

Of course, in using these expressions it is not implied that 
the unconverted man is an enemy whom we are to dragoon 
into the kingdom of heaven. Only as a matter of fact he will 
often resist our approaches and do his best to thwart our 
efforts at personal dealing with him. And it becomes us as 
alert soldiers to strike for the citadel of the heart at once, 
instead of giving him time to fortify, while we are engaged in 
the light skirmishing and counter-marching of general conver- 
sation. 

While we are on this subject of personal conversation with 
the unconverted, I wish to refer to another point on which Mr. 
Vassar exhibited peculiar genius, viz. 3 his skill in dropping a 
brief pungent word into the mind when there was no oppor- 
tunity for an extended conversation. Jeremy Taylor, in his 
treatise on Holy Living, has much to say upon the value of 
"ejaculatory prayer" — the brief pointed petitions interjected 
between the ordinary and more lengthened seasons of devo- 
tion. This good man taught me, as I never learned it before, 
the value of ejaculatory admonition. He was always finding 
opportunity to interject some pungent text of Scripture, or 
some startling warning or suggestion into the mind of those 



INTR OD UCTION. 1 5 

whom he chanced to meet casually. And I learned in some 
instances of great good following these brief words. I recall 
a simple illustration of this habit. When riding into the 
country with him to attend a service, a traveller stopped us on 
a lonely road to inquire his direction, adding that being a 
stranger in the neighborhood he had lost his way. " How 
sad it would be," interposed Mr. Vassar, addressing him with 
great solemnity, "if you should lose your way to heaven. 
Strive to enter in at the strait gate. For wide is the gate and 
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there 
be which go in thereat." I could see at a glance that the 
words made an impression, and that the loneliness of the 
traveller and his anxiety to find his way were just the circum- 
stances to enforce most powerfully this wayside message. 
Perhaps this may seem a small matter for the consideration of 
the Christian worker. But I am persuaded that in his case it 
was a very great matter when reckoned in the sum total of his 
success. We heard a bank cashier describe recently the 
habits of a millionaire who had just died. " One secret of his 
success in acquiring his fortune," he said, " was his economy 
in little sums. He never wasted a sheet of paper, or a pos- 
tage stamp. He never threw in an odd cent in making change. 
Every loose fragment however small was gathered up." Well, 
the children of the world ought not to be wiser in their gene- 
ration than the children of light. Admonished as we are to 
" redeem the time," " to be instant in season, out of season," 
we can not overestimate the importance of economizing stray 
opportunities. And while volumes have been written on the 
art of making sermons, let me enforce this lesson on making 
sermonettes, on thrusting in the gospel brieflet where the 
occasion will not allow of the lengthened discourse. It is, we 
venture to say, the hardest chapter in Homiletics to learn. 



1 6 INTR OD UCTION. 

Preachers spend so much time in getting inured to Saul's 
armor with its close-fitting joints of logic, with its burnished 
ornaments of rhetoric and illustration, that if they do not come 
to disdain David's sling they have little time to practise with 
it. But the man of God that will be thoroughly furnished, 
must learn the value of the humble sling of ejaculatory warn- 
ing, and the smooth stone of Scripture quotation. And if we 
imagine that these are only inferior weapons fitted for reach- 
ing the heart of the simple-minded and ignorant, let us re- 
member that there is nothing mightier in all God's armory 
than a text of Scripture, and that one of these may like David's 
pebble hit the head, when we only expected it to strike no 
higher than the heart. 

The life of which I am speaking made a profound impres- 
sion in another direction, viz., by the startling contrast which 
it presented to the ordinary life of the world, and hardly less 
to the ordinary quality of piety in the church. I pass in say- 
ing this from the power and use of Christian conversation to 
that of Christian example. A humble man who never spoke 
of himself, except in terms of depreciation, and to whom any 
suggestion of credit or praise always seemed painful, he at the 
same time gave the most powerful illustration which I have 
ever witnessed of utter and unreserved consecration to God. 
I am sure I do not exaggerate when I say that there was noth- 
ing in this world, from riches to bodily comfort, from reputa- 
tion to personal gratification, that had the slightest attraction 
for him. Instead of being perplexed to acquire money as so 
many Christians are, he seemed greatly perplexed if any came 
into his hand to know what to do with it. If a ten-dollar gold 
piece were slipped into his pocket — as was often done by some 
grateful convert — he would act like a citizen of heaven won- 
dering " whose image and superscription " this could be, and 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

what possible value this coin could have for him " a stranger 
and a pilgrim in the earth." If I were to describe his pecu- 
liarities in this direction, I fear I should make him appear 
almost grotesque in his indifference to the things of this world. 
Suffice it to say he seemed to have become absolutely natural- 
ized as a citizen of heaven, and to be living in the world for 
the sole object of getting men out of it, and introducing them 
into the kingdom of God. 

You will not wonder perhaps that this utter unworldliness, 
and this entire indifference alike to the praise and to the 
blame, to the rewards and to the reproaches of men, should 
have made him very unacceptable to many Christians. We 
talk admiringly of apostolic zeal and primitive piety, but let a 
genuine fragment of this piety suddenly fall into the midst of 
us, and I am not so certain that it will be greeted with unqual- 
ified applause. Extremes can never meet without commotion. 
A red-hot enthusiasm for Christ plunged snddenly into an 
element of lukewarm piety^, will inevitably produce a hissing 
and ebullition. Contrariety of character is sufficient to awa- 
ken antagonism even if there is no hostility of spirit. This 
principle holds everywhere, in doctrine, in life, in morals. 
The bare, silent presentation of a startling contrast is a signal 
for disturbance. When Edward Irving, at the height of his 
popularity, was invited to preach the annual sermon before the 
London Missionary Society, he set himself to work he tells us 
by profound study and prayer to reproduce from the gospel a 
true picture of the Apostolic Missionary. You may study 
that picture to-day as it stands portrayed in his printed dis- 
course. It is magnificent, eloquent in the highest degree, and 
yet I do not think any one reading it now can say that it is 
overdrawn or false to the original. And yet you know, if you 
have read the story, what a tumult it created when delivered, 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

because doubtless of the startling contrast it suggested between 
the ancient and the modern policy and methods of missionary 
labor. He was addressing a society that a little before had 
greeted with applause the declaration of a speaker who had 
said, " If I were asked what is the first qualification for a mis- 
sionary, I would say prudence, and the second prudence, and 
the third prudence." What wonder that when the picture of 
the Apostolic Missionary was produced, the man of sublime 
and dominant faith, "the man without a purse, without a 
scrip, without a change of raiment; without a staff, without the 
care of making friends or keeping friends, without the hope 
or desire of worldly gain, without the apprehension of worldly 
loss, without the care of life, without the fear of death, of no 
rank, of no country, of no condition, a man of one thought, 
the gospel of Christ, a man of one purpose, the glory of God, 
a fool, and content to be reckoned a fool for Christ, a mad- 
man, and content to be reckoned a madman for Christ" — 
what wonder that such a picture of self-abandoning and sub- 
limely imprudent faith should have startled, and surprised, and 
annoyed those to whom prudence seemed the cardinal virtue 
in a missionary's character. 

But if such a picture could offend, how with a living re- 
production of the original Suddenly presenting himself to the 
average, worldly, and easy-going Christian? I believe hun- 
dreds who knew my missionary friend, Mr. Vassar, would say 
that he filled out every line and shade of Irving's glowing 
portrait of "the Missionary after the Apostolic School." I 
cannot think of one particular in which he came short of it. 
Well, he did rouse a commotion wherever he went : and the 
writer whom I have previously quoted, says truly, that " his 
most vehement opposition came from the class represented 
by the elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son." 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

The respectable, moderate, prudential Christian, whose chief 
concern is that the religious proprieties be not jostled, was 
stunned and confounded by his impetuous zeal. The dweller- 
at-ease in Zion was indignant at the wanton invasion of his 
comfort which this " hot gospeller " brought. " Yes, we 
would gladly see men converted," they would say, " but this 
highly wrought fanaticism, this press-gang method of forcing 
men into the army of Christ we cannot endure." And so 
would come charges of insanity made to the face, the old 
clamor, " Thou art beside thyself." The minister who was 
harboring this disturber was often warned to send him away 
lest the church might be driven to mutiny. And thus as he 
illustrated marvellously one part of Scripture, " the zeal of 
thy house hath eaten me up," he received the literal fulfil- 
ment of the other part, " the reproaches of them that reproach- 
ed thee are fallen on me." 

And yet he did nothing to awaken such opposition except 
to show himself inordinately zealous for men's salvation. He 
was just what the Bible commands, " instant in season, out of 
season," or, as one has well translated the words, " unsea- 
sonably in season." What others do measuredly, he did with 
all the energy and intensity of an undivided heart. His re- 
proach, therefore, was justly earned. It was not the dislike of 
methods, or of the man, but "the reproach of Christ," which 
may still be esteemed greater riches than the treasures of 
Egypt. The gospel has a phrase which we dare say is not 
entirely of primitive application — "the offence of the cross." 
It is not the preaching of the law with its unsparing penalties, 
or of the terror of the Lord with its lurid threatenings, that will 
be most likely to repel men, but the preaching of the cross. 
Free grace is a greater scandal in the eyes of the moralist and 
the formalist, than rigid and exacting law. And so inevitable 



2 o INTR OD UCTION. 

from the nature of the case is the offence of the cross, that 
it seems to me that any ministry which is not to some extent 
stamped with the seal and credential of reproach cannot be 
true. And just as the power of the cross is exhibited in this 
life in a self-denying earnestness in saving the lost and a Christ- 
like surrender of all earthly things for the accomplishment of 
the one end, there will likely be reproach. It will come from 
the unconverted, and most certainly from the formalist within 
the church. For their lives being pitched to no such lofty 
key, they will not comprehend one who is so keyed. It is the 
opprobrium of invidious contrast. It is the annoying and 
startling rebuke, which absolute consecration must inevitably 
cast upon a worldly and self-indulgent Christianity. 

But when we have witnessed such a life, what a charm it 
must have for every one that values the heavenly world above 
the earthly, and has more respect to the recompense of reward 
which Christ offers than to anything which the world can 
give. It is not poetry ; it is not romance. It has been proved 
in a practical, real life, lived among us, that one may take 
joyfully rejection, dislike, and contempt, who has the testi- 
mony that he is pleasing God. What matters it to him if he 
is deemed eccentric, if he knows himself to be moving in the 
orbit which Christ by his own life and command has fixed for 
him. All that are out of that orbit will wonder, some with 
great admiration, and many with great perplexity. This will 
be the inevitable fact. 

" He who far off beholds another dancing, 
Even he who dances best, and all the time 
Hears not the music that he dances to, 
Thinks him a madman, apprehending not 
The law which moves his else eccentric motion ; 
So he that 's in himself insensible 
Of love's sweet influence, misjudges him 
Who' moves according to love's melody. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

And knowing not that all these sighs and tears 

Ejaculations and impatiences, 

Are necessary changes of a measure 

Which the Divine Musician plays, may call 

The lover crazy — which he would not do, 

Did he within his own heart hear the tune 

Played by the great Musician of the world." 

I have thus sketched this life, wishing that I might by my 
description of it produce on others something of the impres- 
sion which the reality made on my own mind. I can truly 
say that I never received such quickening and inspiration 
from any living person. And though I cannot follow his 
steps, I trace those steps with the intensest admiration. A 
life so absolutely given up to God that I believe it would have 
been literally impossible to have given any more : communion 
with God so unbroken that it may be justly said that the lan- 
guage of earth, its chatter, its frivolity, its idle speaking, was 
a foreign speech to him, while the language of heaven was his 
true " mother tongue." — However far we may confess our- 
selves removed from it, we shall all doubtless be ready to say 
that it is supremely blessed to live such a life : the body, 
the soul and spirit all given up to God, to win souls to Christ 
an over-mastering passion, all that earth can offer of joy or 
contempt but dust in the balance, compared with the far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Such we believe to be 
a true picture of this noble life. If the volume now sent 
forth shall be used of God to quicken the halting steps of any 
sluggish Christian, to kindle fresh inspiration in the bosom of 
any already zealous and earnest Christian, or to give new 
courage to any fainting Christian, it will have served the end 
of its publication. a. j. g. 

Clarendon Street Church, Boston, Mass., April, 1879. 



UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE RECRUIT. 

" I praise Thee, while Thy providence 
In childhood's home I trace, 
For blessings given ere dawning sense 
Could seek or scan Thy grace." 

Who John E. Vassar was, and what, thousands knew, 
nor will they be likely quickly to forget. Whence he 
came, and what were the moulding influences of early 
days, are less familiar facts, which it may be well to trace 
and briefly tell. In character, as in creation, what is 
visible is often the effect of causes working and shaping 
far away. 

The Vassar family was French. About the beginning 
of the eighteenth century some of its members crossed 
the English Channel, and in the rich agricultural county 
of Norfolk found a home. Here at wool-growing and 
farming three generations lived, and mainly died. Here 
Thomas Vassar, the father of John E., was born, and 
spent nearly forty years. 

But he and his brothers were Dissenters, of the Bap- 



24 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

tist faith, and like other nonconformists winced under 
the oppressions and exactions and disabilities imposed by 
the wedded Church and State. Hundreds whose love of 
native land was sincere and fervent were driven abroad, 
to gain the religious liberty which a country made cruel 
by its fears denied. - - 

It was in this exodus that Thomas Vassar, then un- 
married, and his younger brother James — the father of 
Matthew — started across the Atlantic, not so much in 
quest of fame or fortune as " freedom to worship God." 

One October day of 1796 the good ship " Criterion," 
with the emigrants on board, sailed up New York Bay. 
The following spring they settled near Poughkeepsie on 
the Hudson, then a village of some four or five hundred 
souls. For some time the brothers carried on farming 
operations together, Thomas meanwhile returning to 
their native land for implements and seeds. Several 
years later he established the well-known brickyard on 
the Dutchess Turnpike, a mile or two out of town. 

He had previously married Joanna Ellison of Flat- 
bush, Long Island, whose father kept a somewhat noted 
academy there. The wife was by twenty years the hus- 
band's junior, and one of those unselfish souls whose life, 
spent in bearing others' burdens, is in the home or the 
community a benediction. Letters written by her when 
she was seventy-five years of age are models of penman- 
ship and good terse English, and reveal a heart as tender 
as a child's. 

The husband was a sunny, cheery, lively man, full of 
pleasant stories picked up beyond the sea, fuller still of 



THE RECRUIT. 25 

Scripture, which seemed to be always' dropping from his 
lips, busy as a bee, honest to the core, ready for every 
neighborly act or office, and never happier than when, 
with children or grandchildren on his knee, he talked of 
the dear old home beyond the deep, or the one holier and 
fairer far, eternal in the heavens. To their memory he 
stands out still as one who needed to lay little off to fit 
him for companionship with the saints in light. From 
his nineteenth to his ninety-third year he walked with 
God, and then, while his hands were uplifted in blessing 
and on his lips lingered some of the great apostle's sweet- 
est words, he found himself suddenly and safely landed 
on the shores of immortality. 

Of these parents, John Ellison Vassar, the fourth 
child in a family of six, was born on the 13th day of Jan- 
uary, 1 8 13. He was named after Dr. John Ellison, his 
mother's only brother, who, after studying medicine 
abroad, settled near Paris, practised successfully at his 
profession, and died there while his namesake was yet 
young. 

The earlier years of childhood are commonly like the 
leaves which, left blank, are bound up next to the covers 
of a book. They may not be absolutely characterless, 
but little is stamped thereon which can afterward be 
read. Of the boy John Vassar, not much can be remem- 
bered now. He was wide-awake, impulsive, affection- 
ate, quick-tempered, and rapidly despatched what was 
given him to do. All this those who knew him say. 
Had they not said it, so much might have been inferred. 
Nature never pieces together contradictions. Out of a 

John E. Vassar. 3 



26 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

calm, cool, easy-going boy your man of red-hot earnest- 
ness cannot come. 

The lad had for three winters the advantages of an 
ordinary district school. These did not amount to much 
in those days. The father and mother, both of whom 
were better educated than the average teacher then, di- 
rected some further studies in the home. He was not a 
remarkable scholar, however, and it is doubtful whether 
he would have been even with larger opportunities. He 
had a bright, active mind, but patient, rigid application to 
books would never have suited him so well as hard, heavy 
work. To that he early bent his back. At twelve years 
old he is in the brickyard. His body is little, but it is 
sturdy, and his spirit is plucky ; so while scarcely more 
than a child he is said to have filled a man's place. While 
thus employed, and somewhere about his twentieth year, 
an accident befell him, from the effects of which he was 
never altogether free. In hurrying across a rude log- 
bridge which spanned a creek near the house, one leg 
somehow slipped through, and was so badly broken as to 
leave him thereafter with a limping limb. 

Laid aside for many weeks, it was the hope and 
prayer of his parents that the misfortune might bring 
seriousness and salvation to their child. But trouble 
does not always work that way. It is one thing to worry 
over calamity ; it is another to weep over sin — how far 
another many a soul could testify. Recovery came, but 
not conversion. The ripple of uneasiness settled down. 
The old life of profanity and prayerlessness came rushing 
back, and along the old channels it pushed its way. God 



THE RECRUIT. 27 

was forgotten. Eternity faded from the thoughts like a 
passing dream. 

So time ran on till he had begun his twenty-fifth year. 
Then he married, and moving into Poughkeepsie com- 
menced housekeeping, and working in the malt-house or 
brewery there. The wife chosen was one Mary Lee. 
Like himself, she had been blest with praying parents. 
Like him, she had not yet learned to pray. He is now 
started out in life. His home is pleasant ; his health is 
perfect ; his prospects fair. What more can be asked ? 
Nothing, if this world were all. Nothing, if there were 
not a soul which came from God, and can .never rest till 
it comes to God again. So far John Vassar has kept 
himself an alien from the commonwealth of Israel. He 
stands on the side that is not the Lord's. And he tries, 
as many are trying still, to be happy there. But this 
smooth complacency or self-satisfaction is about to be 
broken up. Infinite Love will not suffer a soul to con- 
tent itself always with the getting and keeping and mind- 
ing of earthly things. The time has come for him to lis- 
ten to God's call and throw himself entirely and eternally 
into the Saviour's ranks. 

To this we pass. So far we have seen the stuff of 
which the recruit was made. 



28 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

CHAPTER II. 

MUSTERED IN. 

"And the angels echoed around the throne, 
' Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own.' " 

Some incidents of childhood are cut into memory as 
inscriptions are cut into rock. No lapse of time wears 
them out, or tones down the sharp deep lines. One such 
is associated with the conversion of Uncle John. He 
had come out to see his parents and tell them what a 
Saviour he had found. We were at grandfather's when 
he arrived. What he said we were too young to under- 
stand, and not one utterance can now be recalled ; but 
the recollection of the scene that followed is perfectly 
distinct. All wept while his story was being told. Pres- 
ently they knelt around the room, and two or three offer- 
ed prayer. In the old homestead there was a holy quiet 
joy all day long. It was the history of the prodigal gone 
through again. Another runaway had come to himself 
and had returned to the Father's house, and under the 
earthly father's roof there was gladness devout and deep. 
Shall we doubt that it was the echo of a delight felt in 
heaven over the repenting sinner? 

Uncle John's awakening, like everything about the 
man, was extraordinary. It is doubtful whether John 
Bunyan's or John Newton's was more powerful or pro- 
found. In the Baptist church a revival was in progress, 



MUSTERED IN. 29 

and early morning meetings as well as evening services 
were being held. He was urged to attend these, but 
in the most decided way refused. Finally his cousin, 
Matthew Vassar, Jr., fairly hired him to go "just once." 
He went, and readily promised to do the same again 
without reward. Before the second service was over, 
conviction deep and terrible got hold upon his soul. For 
a week he was shaken by the powers of the world to 
come as trees are shaken by mighty winds. Say what 
we will about what old divines were wont to call " law 
work" in regeneration, John Vassar quivered and strug- 
gled for days in its stern grasp. Sin and the woe it mer- 
its were awfully real to him — so real, that on going home 
from one of the meetings and finding his wife asleep, he 
roused her with the cry, " How can you rest when your 
husband is going right down to hell ?" 

Nor was it the record of a profligate career which 
stirred shame and fear and pain. He had a fiery, ungov- 
ernable temper, and had been given to terrible outbursts 
of profanity when provoked, but from other gross forms 
of wickedness he had been free. It was the conscious- 
ness of a state of heart radically wrong that lay at the 
bottom of his self-abhorrence and alarm ; the persuasion 
that outside decency was not the holiness of God. The 
Holy Spirit was dealing with him, and hence he quailed. 
And when peace and pardon broke in, they did not come 
as the dawn of day. It was rather as if noonday sunshine 
were to flash out in the murky night. He got an assu- 
rance of sonship so bright and clear that nothing after- 
ward darkened it for an hour. 

3* 



3 o UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

In part, perhaps, such an experience would be natu- 
ral to a temperament keyed so high. There could be no 
halfway emotion about the man, any more than there 
could be halfway work. Halfness went against the grain. 
But it was something more than mere natural intensity 
which glowed in his face and throbbed in the testimony 
of his tongue. There was a life hidden with Christ 
whose pulsations, at the first, as ever afterward, were 
strong as ocean's undertow. Let this account for those 
positive ideas he held and urged concerning the doctrine 
of a new birth. Conversion was to him something defi- 
nite and discernible. It was not a maybe and maybe- 
not change. There was in his sight a line where liv- 
ing for self and Satan ceased, and living for God and 
godliness began ; and that line he looked upon as sharp- 
ly drawn. He could not have regarded it otherwise. 
Divine grace had stopped him as that light from heaven 
stopped Saul of Tarsus, and as suddenly and as squarely 
he had turned around. Christ's image had been stamped 
upon his soul as the eagle is stamped on the bit of gold 
under the die of the mint ; and whose he was, or what, he 
could not allow himself to question. That had been once 
and for ever settled. He was twenty-eight years old 
when he thus found the Lord ; rather let us say, when 
the Lord thus found him. It is the Saviour who is the 
chief seeker, and not the sinner. 

Like every consistent convert he turned to the people 
of God and asked among them a brother's place. On 
the 3d of April, 1842, he was welcomed into the fellow- 
ship of the Poughkeepsie Baptist church. Rev. Rufus 



MUSTERED IN. 31 

Babcock, D. D., who thus became his pastor, and was for 
many years his counseller and guide, could have told us 
much about the beginnings of this Christian life, had he 
been a little longer spared ; but the venerated pastor got 
to the goal slightly ahead of his younger brother. 

Rev. Edgar A. Van Kleek of Patten, Maine, for many 
years a most cherished friend, and at the time of Uncle 
John's conversion himse]f a new recruit in the army of 
the Lord, gives us this glimpse of the man when as a 
rebel against God he was brought to lay down his arms : 
" I well remember the night when he was in such distress 
of mind, though I was only a child in the Christian life 
then. The meeting was in the little prayer-room of the 
La Fayette street house, and as many were interested it 
was filled. I sat next to him in the first seat as you en- 
tered from the door. I never saw a soul in such agony 
as he. The service closed and most of the congregation 
had retired. As a few were lingering, he begged them 
, not to go but to stop longer and pray for him. He said 
he could not go out of the room till forgiveness had been 
spoken and peace had come. A half dozen of us remain- 
ed and prayed that mercy might be extended and his 
burden lifted off. Then he broke out into petitions for 
himself, and such begging for salvation I never heard 
from the lips of any other penitent. Dr. Babcock stopped 
with us and tried to point out Christ. He was more calm 
before we separated, but not by any means at rest. The 
next night, however, he was rejoicing in a Saviour's par- 
doning love. There was rapture on his face, there was 
glory in his soul. There was glory in that old prayer- 



32 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

room, too, as he told us that evening of God's own peace 
and the preciousness of Jesus. 

"After this a number of us were returning from a 
neighborhood meeting one night where the interest had 
been very deep, and we were all so full of joy that some 
began to sing along the street as we went toward home. 
This rather unusual manifestation of enthusiasm called 
out the remark that people would think us crazy if we did 
not keep more still ; whereupon Brother Vassar — the 
child in grace father of the man — at once replied, ' Let 
them think so ; they said the blessed Jesus had a devil.' " 

So we behold Uncle John enlisted for the good fight 
of faith. How splendidly he fought it we shall see fur- 
ther along. How to fight it he is now to learn. Years 
are to be spent in the drill-room now. 

But he has been mustered in. 



THE DRILL. $$ 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DRILL. 

" Each of God's soldiers bears 
A sword divine ; 
Stretch out thy trembling hands 
To-day for thine." 

Arms and armor are all-important in secular and sa- 
cred warfare, but how to wield the one and wear the other 
must be learned. The God of battles seldom makes a 
raw soldier into a great leader all at once. Moses tarries 
in Horeb, and Elijah in the desert, and Paul in Arabia, 
to get a preparation for their work ; and with forty days 
in the wilderness even our Lord's ministry begins. The 
man we are following here was girded and disciplined in 
various ways. For these experiences eight years will be 
none too long. 

Naturally enough his voice was quickly heard in the 
social meetings of the church. But he was a novice in 
religious things, and needed instruction especially in the 
word of God. Probably he was more ignorant of even 
the letter of Scripture than many a half-grown boy to-day. 
He had not been a member of the Sunday-school, nor a 
regular church attendant by any means, and little of Bible 
truth lay in his mind excepting such scraps and fragments 
as home-training might have fastened there. This defi- 
ciency he sought, far and fast as possible, to supply. In 



34 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

the brewery where he was employed, he would write down 
on the walls in the morning two or three short texts to 
be committed and thought over while at his tasks. On 
a shelf near by, or else in his pocket, was kept a small 
Bible, and when there was an unoccupied moment that 
would be in his hands. Evenings, when no religious ser- 
vice claimed his time, over that same book he would bend 
for hours, sometimes on his knees. Thus little by little 
he acquired that familiarity with the written word which 
he afterward displayed. Many a reader of this page will 
recall instances where he foiled opposers and silenced 
cavillers, as his Master did the tempter on the mountain, 
by quotations apt and irresistible. 

No talent lent him was allowed to rust from disuse. 
Fast as he got he gave. He believed it as wrong to hoard 
grace as gold. Communion with Christ was only a holy 
portal through which to pass to the help of man. He 
began to talk with individuals about their hope ; not so 
pointedly or skilfully as in later years, for tact and fidelity 
such as characterized him must partly be acquired. But 
from the start no one spent half an hour in his presence 
without being made to feel that with John Vassar reli- 
gion was a real thing. In the prayer circle and in revi- 
val services he became a power. In the schoolhouses 
out of town, where meetings were often held, his help 
was sought. One such visit of his comes up as we write. 
It probably occurred a year or two after his conversion. 
It was a cold winter night, and the little old schoolhouse 
on the hill was packed. The Spirit of God was working 
in the district, and many were inquiring or rejoicing in a 



THE DRILL. 35 

good hope. Others were ill at ease. Uncle John was at 
home in such a place ; especially at home on that partic- 
ular spot and amid the group gathered there. On these 
very benches he sat in boyhood, and some of these fathers 
and mothers were then by his side. The exercises of the 
hour have faded from our mind, but one association of the 
night remains. When the people had started homeward 
along the roads or across the fields, out came ringing one 
of the melodies of those days. Uncle John was leading 
in the hymn, and half a dozen others were joining in, 
and though they were probably half a mile away, every 
word reported itself on the keen frosty air. Some who 
stopped to listen thought the strains almost sweet enough 
to be the echoes of celestial songs. Let the worldling 
sneer or the skeptic smile at the mention of such scenes 
and seasons, but we will remember the years of the right 
hand of the Most High. 

But there were to enter into the drill of the soldier 
experiences of a sterner kind. If there is a land of Beu- 
lah for the Christian to pass through, there is a valley of 
Baca too. Uncle John is to see a happy home break up, 
its lights one by one go out, its members pass away, till 
he is left utterly alone. He is to say like many another, 

" And lonely rooms and suffering beds, 
These for my training-place were given." 

Two boys, with the wife, made up his household. The 
younger sickened first. He died in September, 1847. 
The elder, a lad of nine years, an uncommonly bright and 
interesting child, was taken the following autumn, after 
an illness of but a few hours. He breathed his last in 



36 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

parental arms, whispering the dear Lord's words, " Suf- 
fer the little children to come unto me." 

Under these repeated strokes the wife and mother, 
never strong, gave way. A year of weary wasting and 
patient suffering followed, and then, in November of 1849, 
she found the rest remaining to the people of God. That 
cheerless autumn night was the only time when we ever 
saw Uncle John even momentarily cast down. Then for 
half an hour he did lie down and weep like a heart-broken 
child. Nor was it strange. Long watching had nearly- 
worn him out. Only four weeks previously he had closed 
his venerable father's eyes for the last long sleep. The 
loves of earth had been breaking fast. But faith quickly 
rose again and rejoiced in God. The eagle flies highest 
not in serene but stormy skies, and the believer beats 
heavenward when the hours are dark and the tempest 
wild. The heart of the lonely man recovered soon the 
old peace and trust, and exulted in the Rock of his salva- 
tion. Like the needle of the mariner, deflected for an 
instant when a storm first strikes the ship, but swinging 
right and holding steady soon, the smitten soul turned to 
its Stay and Rest. For those who had gone it was wor- 
ship. For the one left it was work yet for a little while. 
With soul new-braced let him go to it — new-braced by 
sorrow as well as joy ; disciplined by loss no less than 
gain. He was to be a son of consolation to many a 
mourner in coming days. He was to minister to smitten 
spirits with a woman's tenderness. He was to look into 
eyes dim with tears, and say, " I have been in this very 
pass, and know its bitterness and blessedness." 



THE DRILL. 37 

It is of these days that his then pastor and lifelong 
friend, Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, writes : " Brother Vassar 
was a member of my first charge, and for many Sabbaths 
at the commencement of my ministry used to help me 
greatly by looking me right in the eye. One day, as 
soon as I began my sermon, he put his head down, nor 
did he raise it till the sermon was finished. What it 
meant I could not tell. This was repeated the next Sab- 
bath, and the next. I asked then an explanation. He 
replied, ' Beloved, I have a better plan than looking you 
in the eye. I start even with you, praying while you 
preach ; and to every appealing truth I say, " Lord, send 
that home. Lord, send that home." ' He is the only 
man who ever helped me by putting down his head while 
I preached. I drove the nail with the gospel hammer, 
and he clinched it with believing prayer. 

" I shall ever remember how gently he would criticise 
my sermons, and even his rebukes were so pregnant with 
the love of Jesus that I was instructed and improved 
without a hurt. 

" In going out on my first round of parish calls, I was 
told that I would find Brother Vassar at the brewery. I 
entered the building, and approaching him unobserved, 
saw a man standing near a great caldron of boiling hops 
with a book in his hand. Looking over his shoulder, I 
noticed that it was 'Fox's Book of Martyrs' that was 
being read. 

" In going out of the place one of the workmen asked, 
' Did you find him ?' I said, ' Yes.' ' Well,' said he, 
' there is one spot in this brewery that is better than any 

John E, Vassar, 4 



38 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

church in Poughkeepsie, and that is where that man 
prays.' 

" Mrs. Vassar was at the point of death. Her disease 
was consumption, and she feared strangulation. She 
therefore asked me one day to pray that she might die 
easily. In the sympathy of the moment I promised, but on 
meeting Brother Vassar in the next room, I said to him 
that I had made a hard promise. 'Why ?' was his reply. 
' Because I have no faith/ was my answer ; \ and I have 
no faith simply because there is no promise.' 'Why/ 
said he, speaking as a man to a child (and I was only a 
child in experience), ' if you were the son of a wealthy 
father who loved you, and would never deny you any- 
thing that was for your real good, and you needed a hun- 
dred dollars, would n't you say, I shall have a hundred 
dollars, your faith springing from your father's wealth 
and your father's love?' God's promise was deduced 
from the knowledge of God's relation to the saint. In 
that day such a statement was a revelation to me. We 
went to prayer. Our prayer was answered. Mrs. Vassar 

died 

" ' As dies a wave along the shore.' " 

Of this same period Mrs. R. A. Thurston, of Pough- 
keepsie, says : 

" My acquaintance with John E. Vassar began in the 
spring of 1849. The first thing about the man that sur- 
prised me was, that, with his daily work and the severe 
sickness then existing in his home, he was able to do so 
much for Christ and for his fellow-men. He was a peace- 
maker, a comforter, a helper wherever there was need. 



THE DRILL. 39 

Were any cast down ? he came with words of hope. 
Were any indifferent ? so earnest and loving and arous- 
ing were his words, that the slumbering started into 
new life. Were any sick, or anxious about salvation ? 
he quickly found it out, and was at their sides. In the 
social meetings, he was wonderful. In remark or prayer, 
his face seemed to glow as if heaven had come down, his 
soul and ours to greet. When we heard his clear voice 
leading in some sweet song of Zion, we thought that 
never before were so many rich gifts and graces bestow- 
ed on a single man. 

" I was in the habit of frequently visiting his sick wife, 
and often carried some little delicacy along. The 
morning following her death, unaware that the end had 
come, I went down to the house with a pitcher contain- 
ing something for her in my hand. At the door I met 
Brother Vassar, and asked him to take in what I had 
brought, that I might hasten back. Clasping his hands 
together, he said, ' Bless the Lord ! my wife is in heaven. 
She needs nothing more.' I could not understand then 
how he -could rejoice while his dead companion lay in 
the still and darkened house, but I understand it now. 
He would not be so selfish as to let his loss outweigh 
her gain. He would rather rejoice and give God thanks 
that for her sorrow and suffering were over, and the 
eternal glory reached." 

S. M. Shaw, Esq., editor of the " Freeman's Journal," 
Cooperstown, N. Y., speaking of this period in Uncle 
John's life, says : 

" I knew the late beloved John E. Vassar for several 



40 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

years previous to January I, 1849. He was a teacher in 
the Sabbath-school which I then superintended, and one 
of the most prompt, faithful, and successful. 

" If there was a truly ' holy' man in that school or 
church, he was the one entitled to the appellation. He 
showed his love to God, not alone by a consistent walk, 
but by his true-hearted and unselfish love and service of 
his fellow-men. He was a cheerful, happy Christian, 
whose ever-welcome presence was sunshine. A cloud 
was never seen upon his face except when considering 
another's trials or sufferings, and then he was ever ready 
with a word of comfort and cheer. In this world's 
goods he was poor, but his heart was rich in love and 
tenderness. Of his means he was a cheerful giver. To 
his pastor he was a devoted friend, and he was as modest 
and unassuming as he was good." 

Thus, by fidelity in little things, he qualified himself 
for larger trusts. He did not belong to that clique of 
religious perambulators who are more useful anywhere 
else than in their own homes. He took hold with his 
brethren of the nearest work he found to do, and so fit- 
ted himself for and grew into bigger tasks and broader 
spheres. 

Eight or nine years so spent are sufficient, and he 
goes out now to extensive and efficient service. He has 
become used to the uniform, and he likes it well. He 
has learned how to handle the sword of the Spirit, and 
ward off the assaults of Satan on his shield of faith. 
He has skirmished with the foe, and found out his 
strength. His armor has been burnished by affliction 



THE DRILL. 41 

till it shines. Above all, loyalty to his Captain has be- 
come the passion of his soul. Now he is looking for a 
place somewhere in the lines. All he asks is a private's 
position, and less than a private's pay. He will not be 
kept looking long. 



42 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ASSIGNED TO SERVICE: 

" Prepared the trumpet's call to greet, 
Soldier of Jesus, stand ; 
Pilgrim of Christ, with ready feet 
Await thy Lord's command." 

Home relationships and responsibilities are some- 
times influential in keeping men in places and at occu- 
pations for which they feel a growing disrelish or dis- 
like. It was so with Uncle John. He had been for 
many years employed in the malthouse and brewery 
of " M. Vassar and Company," when the light of God 
dawned on his soul. Soon afterward he began to feel 
uncomfortable about his position — began to question 
whether the work he was doing was consistent with the 
hope he cherished, and the profession he had made. 
The Washingtonian Reformation, which a little later 
swept over many portions of our land, deepened the im- 
pression that as a child of God he ought to be other- 
wise engaged. Duty, however, did not at once grow 
clear. With the members of the firm, who were his 
cousins, his relations had been intimate and kind. 
The temperance sentiment, though it was growing 
rapidly, was not then as high, either in the church or 
out, as it is to-day. Then while the subject was be- 
ing pondered, the repeated household afflictions 



ASSIGNED TO SERVICE, 43 

already noted fell, and they diverted attention from 
this subject for a time. Soon as he found himself 
alone in the world, however, the old queries returned. 
What had been only impressions heretofore deepened 
into convictions soon, and conviction made obligation 
plain. He left the place he so long had filled, whose 
emoluments, present and prospective, were far greater 
than he could hope elsewhere to gain, and in the spring 
of 1850 found himself, for the first time in more than a 
dozen years, unemployed. 

How God could be glorified and his generation 
served was now the question of the hour. The answer 
quickly came. The American Tract Society of New 
York was pushing vigorously the system of colportage 
in the West. The labors of plain, humble, but godly 
and earnest men, several hundred of whom were on 
the field, were being greatly blest — how greatly the 
revealings of the eternal day alone will tell. 

The committee of the Society recognized in Uncle 
John one suited to their kind of work. They com- 
missioned him on the 15th day of May, 1850. He 
was not promised anything like ease. " Roughing it" 
was the order of that day, and the demand. He was 
not promised very heavy pay in the currency of earth 
— a hundred and sixty dollars a year and travelling 
expenses ; but he went joyfully to a work that to the 
last was his delight. For if ever mortal truthfully 
could say what Christ did, " My meat is to do the will 
of Him that sent me," he was that man. 

Up to this date we have had little but scattered 



44 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

recollections to put together. Henceforth we have 
items in his own letters and reports on which to draw, 
and so can let the laborer himself tell something about 
his toil. 

His field of operations for a year or more was the 
northern, or north-eastern, portions of Illinois ; more 
particularly the counties of Kane, Kendall, De Kalb, 
and Boone. Stopping in Chicago long enough to meet 
some old friends, and get a supply of the Society's 
publications for distribution, he struck out for the new 
settlements a hundred miles beyond. He was now 
thirty -seven years old, had an almost iron constitution, 
spirits buoyant as a child's, an all -conquering faith, 
and a large amount of good sturdy common sense. 
Add to all this a zeal that never flagged, and it will be 
seen that he went forth well equipped. 

The summer was one of burning drought. The 
prairies, which on his arrival looked so fresh and 
green, by July lay scorched and blasted, and men's 
hearts were failing them for fear. As a consequence, 
the books he carried sold slowly, and the sultry days 
and short nights of harvest-time were not favorable for 
getting hold of the people, either in their homes or 
through such evening meetings as were tried. He 
says, however: "I expected difficulties, and am not 
disappointed in the least. The Lord is a present help. 
I pass along the highways contented with any fare, and 
stop where the night overtakes me, witnessing all the 
time to small and great that Christ has power to 
save. ' ' 



ASSIGNED TO SERVICE. 45 

With the autumn and early winter tokens of good 
appear. The more driving labor of the farm is done, 
and in spite of frets and fears crops are fair. He 
writes, " I had a most precious season yesterday. I 
find the people prepared by God to hear even me, and 
have been astonished to witness the effect produced by 
a mere exhortation. Truly our Lord does work by 
simple means." Before spring has come, the snow- 
covered prairies that he is tramping over glow re- 
ligiously, as they do literally, with returning summer. 
Nor is it the country neighborhoods alone that feel the 
tinglings of a new spiritual life. Belvidere, St. 
Charles, Elgin, and other towns in his district feel the 
kindlings of a sacred fire. Along the Wisconsin bor- 
der are extensive ingatherings of souls. " I have no 
rest," says the toiler, " night nor day." 

And yet he does not forget home and friends amid 
these joys and cares, for in the letter quoted from 
above he says : " Oh, Sister H., I never felt so much 
for our own church before. Do all you can to stir up 
the brethren. Warn them not to sleep while the world 
is going so swift to ruin. Do all you can for our dear 
W. and H. We shall meet them in eternity so soon." 

While on this field he makes a brief visit to a fam- 
ily previously known in the Eastern States. The 
home was a Christian one, and the first evening passed 
rapidly and pleasantly in calling up old times and 
places. The host spoke hopefully of his prospects and 
talked over his plans, but made little reference to 
the subject uppermost in the mind of Uncle John. 



46 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

Presently a good opportunity was given to introduce 
the matter, and he turned to it by asking these old ac- 
quaintance what kind of neighbors they had found. 
" Really," said the lady, " I scarcely know. I am 
intimate with almost none of them ; and if the truth 
must be told, I have not sought to be." 

* ' How long did you say you had been living here 7 • 

" Five years next spring," was the reply. 

11 Five years next spring ! Oh, my dear brother 
and sister, both of you professors of religion and yet 
living here so long without even informing yourselves 
about the condition of those nearest to your doors ! 
What a pity ! what a pity ! What will the Lord say 
to you ?" 

The man and his wife looked at him, looked at one 
another, and then looked down. Then as he went on 
to speak of Christian obligation both asked, " What 
ought we to have done ? What could we have done ?" 
As past opportunities were clearly pointed out, the 
more pertinent query came to their lips, " Well, how 
can we best take up our neglected duties now?" 
Definitely he mapped out a plan of labor, and before 
leaving besought them to put it in operation without 
delay. 

Weeks afterward he was at their door again. Be- 
fore he got inside, the woman of the house greeted 
him with the exclamation, " I am so glad you have 
come ! You are just in the right time." 

He entered and found several of the neighbors who 
had come together to talk over measures eyeing the re- 



ASSIGNED TO SERVICE. 47 

ligious welfare of the community. These old friends 
of his had not been so plainly and lovingly dealt with 
in vain. They had shown how sincerely they deplored 
past unfaithfulness by vigorously taking hold of re- 
sponsibilities which selfishly or indolently had been 
shirked. They had scoured the region round about. 
They had ascertained by going from house to house 
how many had once name the named of Christ. These 
had been got together. Mutual confessions had been 
made. Old covenants had been renewed. Regular 
meetings during the week had been established. Oc- 
casional preaching for the Sabbath had been secured. 
A Sunday-school had been organized, and it was but a 
little time before the habits of the neighborhood were 
revolutionized. 

How many times he set such a train of influences 
working only God knows. This incident had alto- 
gether dropped from his mind till some unknown 
friend put it into a tract for circulation and accident- 
ally the tract fell under his eye only three or four years 
before he died. 

In the summer of 185 1 he comes East again, to visit 
his aged mother, and in the autumn he is sent to Cleve- 
land, Ohio, a city in which some of his most effective 
work was done. This arrangement was effected 
through his old pastor, Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, at this 
date prosecuting a most successful ministry in Cleve- 
land. Inclined always to self-depreciation, Uncle 
John seems apprehensive that his style of labor will 
not be liked among city circles and cultivated folks. 



4 3 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

He imagines the backwoods his sphere. He regrets 
that he was not left there, and makes the new depart- 
ure with earnest prayers for help. Soon, however, his 
letters undergo a change. They take on a more cheer-, 
ful tone. He finds that human nature is much the 
same, whether in a log-cabin of one room or a brown- 
stone front on the avenue. Everywhere he is given 
the most cordial welcome. His books sell as he had 
never seen them sell before. The churches make most 
generous collections for the Society, the Rev. Mr. 
Smith's contributing six hundred dollars in two days. 
Nor do they in giving to the service overlook the ser- 
vant's wants. Thus modestly he mentions a timely gift : 
" While writing the other evening a gentleman called 
with a bundle, containing a note from some unknown 
friend, a very handsome overcoat, and a pair of 
gloves, The coat is much too fine and fashionable for 
me, but the note says that I must wear it, so what else 
can I do?" We shall not misjudge the good man if 
we suppose that in the new garment he felt more com- 
fortable in going from house to house than in the old 
one, which had done prairie service. While his tastes 
were plain, and fashions of little consequence, he liked 
to be respectably attired, especially where a rusty 
garb might excite prejudice and impair his usefulness. 
More gratifying to him, however, than personal at- 
tentions and generous collections, or large sales, was 
the spiritual quickening which was enjoyed. The de- 
tails are but meagrely given, the most that he records 
being in these lines : " I visit frequently forty families 



ASSIGNED TO SERVICE, 49 

a day, have a meeting somewhere every night, and 
speak to three Sunday-schools where practicable every 
Lord's day. I have conversed with over three thou- 
sand people during the last three months on the sub- 
ject of personal religion, and feel that for this city a 
wonderful blessing is in store." 

Happily the facts and incidents of that memorable 
winter can, in part at least, be furnished by those who 
moved amid them, some of whom during it felt the 
Spirit's touch unto eternal life. What one man did — 
rather what God through him did — let these in their 
own way tell. 

Rev, George M. Stone, D.D., of Tarrytown, N.Y., 
thus writes : " My first acquaintance with Uncle John 
was in Cleveland, Ohio, in the year 1852. He was 
visiting from house to house, and in that portion of 
the city a remarkable religious interest was soon mani- 
fest. I was then an unconverted young man about 
eighteen years of age, and engaged in a printing office. 
A companion in the office, who had heard of the elo- 
quence of Rev. J. Hyatt Smith, invited me to accom- 
pany him one evening to the lecture-room of his church, 
where meetings were being held. I went, and was in- 
terested in the preaching. As I arose to pass out, 
after the service, I was approached by a person, then 
a stranger, who asked with mingled earnestness and 
kindness if I loved the Lord Jesus Christ. He took 
my hand at the same time, and held it firmly. I can 
never forget the intense sincerity of that first inter- 
view. I felt in a moment that^I had never before met 

John E. Vassar. 5 



50 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

a man who possessed such a transcendent conscious- 
ness of divine things. That stranger was John E. 
Vassar, and from that hour convictions began to stir 
my heart which in time the Holy Spirit used to lead 
me to Christ. 

" He assisted me in religious meetings subsequently 
at Danbury, Conn., and in visitations in Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin. In this association with him his experience 
seemed to be a perpetual summer of Christian love." 

Hear again his friend Rev. J. Hyatt Smith : " On 
his way to Illinois as a colporteur of the American 
Tract Society, he surprised me by calling at my house 
one day. I urged him to remain a while. He refused, 
and left that same night on a steamer for Detroit. 
The boat was so crowded that I was afraid to have him 
go on board. I remember his look as he replied, ' I 
rejoice that so many are going. I shall have a blessed 
time working for souls.' Away he went on an over- 
loaded steamer in a stormy night, and I went to my 
home praying for him. 

Through my letters to the Society he was after- 
ward transferred to Cleveland, and remained there six 
months. The work that he wrought for the Master in 
my church, to say nothing of the abundant and effec- 
tive labors outside of my parish, God alone may esti- 
mate. I could fill pages with incidents, if the limits 
of this volume would permit. 

" One day Brother Vassar came to me and said, 
1 To-morrow I am going through Dives Street (Euclid 
Street), and I want you to pray for me.' I promised 



ASSIGNED TO SERVICE. 51 

him I would, and requested him to report to me the 
results of his first day's visit to the houses of wealth 
on that beautiful avenue. I give a report of his visit 
to the first house on his journey. At the door of the 
stately dwelling he met the lady of the house. ' What 
do you want, sir ?' she asked, as he approached her. 
He replied, ' I am a colporteur for the Tract Society, 
and ' — pointing to his basket of books — ' I am selling 
these.' ' We have a library, ' washer reply. ' I don't 
doubt it/ said Brother Vassar, glancing at the build- 
ing ; 'but,' he continued, nothing daunted by the 
rather sharp response of the lady, ' the truth is I am 
legs for Bunyan, Baxter, Flavel, and others. They are 
all in the basket there.' The lady, evidently struck 
with the appearance of the man and the quaintness of 
his address, asked him into the parlor. Having 
stormed and carried the house, he began an assault 
upon the castle of the heart. ' I am not only a seller 
of books, but I am anxious to know if you love Jesus,' 
said John. ' I am a member of the church,' the 
woman replied. ' So am I,' said Brother Vassar, ' but 
I fear that God will not take our church records. He 
counts the names recorded in the Lamb's Book of 
Life.' The attack was fairly commenced, and the 
arrows of love flew thick and fast. Heart Castle sur- 
rendered ; the lady with tears exclaimed, ' I know it is 
not enough to belong to a church. You talk like my 
dear mother. Yes, I trust I do love Jesus.' 'Bless 
the Lord,' said John, ' that makes us brother and sis- 
ter. If you love the Saviour, and I see you 4°; would 



52 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

you not like a season of prayer?' She replied, 'I 
would be glad to have you pray.' They knelt side 
by side, and John poured out his soul in supplication. 
At the close of the prayer the lady asked, ' What is the 
price of your books ?' ' Which one ?' said Brother 
Vassar. ' All of them,'' was her answer. The calcula- 
tion was made ; then calling a servant she bade him 
carry them to the library, paid Brother Vassar for 
them, gave him something for himself, and with tears 
in her eyes begged him to forgive her manner at the 
door. ' Don't mention it, my sister, ' said Brother Vas- 
sar, ' you know what our blessed Master had to bear. ' 

" His manner in the prayer-meeting, as I remember 
it in those distant days, and that which I have seen in 
his later life, was in my judgment much the same. I 
do not think his character had those stages of growth 
which mark most Christian men. In Christ Jesus he 
seemed, to have been born a man of full stature. It is 
said of the river Jordan that, unlike most streams, it 
does not start with small springs and receive the con- 
tributions of rivulets by the way, so attaining fulness, 
but bursts forth from one vast source, a river rolling 
to the sea. 

" I never met his like in all the varied labors of a 
saint. He was a master in all the sword exercise of 
God's Word." 

With this Cleveland campaign, service in what 
might be called the Department of the West for a sea- 
son ended. Years afterward he was again on some 
of these, old camp-grounds. 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 5s 

CHAPTER V. 

OFF ON FURLOUGH. 

" Rest is not quitting 
The busy career ; 
Rest is the fitting 

Of self to its sphere." 

THE summer of 1852 found Uncle John again in 
his old home. His mother had gone far beyond her 
three score and ten years, and growing feebleness indi- 
cated that the end was not far away. The only child 
remaining with her was a daughter who from girlhood 
had been frail. It became a question whether duty 
did not require him to stay where he could smooth the 
last few months of a parent whose devotion to her chil- 
dren had been unsurpassed. Satisfied that maternal 
claims were for the present paramount, he dissolved 
his connection with the Tract Society, and waited 
tenderly on the failing steps of the mother till Octo- 
ber, when he laid her down in hope by the good 
father's side. 

Friends in Poughkeepsie now insisted that there 
was work enough for him at home, and especially in 
the temperance line. In many places the so-called 
" Carson League" had been organized, the chief object 
of which was to suppress the unlicensed sale of intoxi- 
cating drink. This Society pressed him to become its 

5* 



54 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

agent in Dutchess County, to bring to justice offenders 
against law. It is needless to remark that this was 
vastly less congenial employment than telling " the 
old, old story of Jesus and his love." But the evil to 
be fought was a crying one, and what right had any 
child of God to decline a service simply because it was 
disagreeable ? He would be withstanding sin and 
Satan still. So he grappled with the whiskey power, 
and it never found in that region a foe who dealt it 
heavier blows, or one whom it was so difficult to scare 
or beat. As religiously as he ever went to his closet 
to pray he ferreted out law-breakers in saloons, and 
groceries, and taverns, and groggeries, nor rested till a 
number were inside of prison bars instead of liquor 
bars, and dozens more, alarmed, gave up the illicit 
trade. As might be expected, " certain lewd fellows 
of the baser sort" cursed and threatened and reviled. 
They hung him in effigy in front of the County Court 
House with the inscription, " This is John Vassar and 
the Maine Law." They prosecuted him in court on a 
charge of assault and battery because one day, in an 
earnest argument, he held a man for a moment by the 
arm, when he was about to turn away. They followed 
him on the streets in hooting rabbles. His life was 
more than once in jeopardy. One of these attempts 
to frighten, if not to injure him, let one who witnessed 
it describe— L. T. Perkins, Esq., of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
then a Poughkeepsie boy. 

" One afternoon he came up Market Street to 
Main, and up Main to the Gregory House, followed by 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 55 

some two hundred angry men, many of them carrying 
clubs and threatening his life. He passed through the 
hotel by a back way, and came down Mill Street to our 
church, where the usual prayer-meeting was about to 
begin. I shall never forget the burning enthusiasm 
of the man as he spoke that night, or the fervor of his 
prayer. After the meeting I wanted to go home with 
him, being fearful that he might be harmed. I know 
it was absurd to think that my five-foot and hundred- 
pound body could have done much toward protecting 
him, but I loved him, and so I wished to go along. 
As we were coming up the basement steps, our pastor, 
Rev. Thomas Goodwin, said, ' Here, Brother Vassar, 
take this cane of mine ; I can get along without it, and 
some of these men may be lurking along the streets 
and may fall on you.' Uncle John just braced him- 
self back, held up both hands, and said, ' Brother 
Goodwin, the Lord has given me these hands for wea- 
pons, and they are all I need. If my Master wants 
John Vassar to-night, nothing can save him. If He 
does not, all these men combined can't hurt him." 

For two years he thus pushed this work, during 
which time he saw his steadfast friend, the late George 
W. Sterling, sent to the State Legislature from the 
Poughkeepsie district, on a straight-out temperance 
ticket, and other triumphs won neither few nor small. 
Concerning these days this is about all the record we 
have from his own hand : "I look back with wonder 
to see how much the Lord has brought me through. 
Blessed be His holy name. I have visited the nineteen 



56 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

towns of the county, and some of them twice over. I 
have walked on an average twenty miles a day, and 
spoken publicly about every night. I believe some 
good has been done, but I take to myself no praise. 
I am an unprofitable servant anywhere, and far too 
little concerned for any good cause." 

Toward the close of these labors — in December, 
1854 — he was married to Miss Harriet M. Brownson, 
formerly of Monticello, Sullivan County, N. Y., but at 
the date of the marriage a very active member of the 
Poughkeepsie church. In entering into this new rela- 
tion it was understood that the remainder of his life 
was to be devoted to evangelistic labor, and that this 
labor would be likely to make of him literally a pilgrim 
and stranger, having no continuing city, no permanent 
or settled home. Animated by much of his spirit, the 
wife sought in nowise to hold him back, but at the 
first, as ever afterward, consented readily to such sepa- 
rations as long absences required, and such an increase 
of care and duty as they might bring. Bible work, in 
his native county, claimed his attention for six months 
or more. The object in securing him was to effect if 
possible an entrance into every house of the county, and 
the putting of a copy of God's Word in every home 
where it was not found. So thorough a canvass of 
that field no one man has ever made. From the shan- 
ties of the coal-burners on Fishkill Mountains, to the 
mansions of the wealthiest in the towns he went, and in 
almost every instance was well received. A few, irri- 
tated by his recent temperance work, shut their doors 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 57 

in his face, but several such were melted when he 
promptly knelt down upon the stoop, and tenderly 
prayed that in turning him away they might not turn 
away his Lord. For Romanists who would receive no 
other, the Douay version was carried, and so in the 
autumn he was able to report that there were few fam- 
ilies in all the district in which the Scriptures could 
not be seen. 

The wide acquaintance thus acquired led the Dutch- 
ess Baptist Association to recognize in him the man 
above all others to undertake mission work within their 
bounds. This body embraced some twenty or more 
churches, and amid these for seven or eight years he 
now moved, aiding by prayer and exhortation in extra 
meetings, and especially in visiting from house to 
house. Here it was that he first took on himself the 
title of " Shepherd's dog," a title which thereafter 
clung to him, and by which he was almost as well 
known as " Uncle John." It originated in the fact 
that he always and everywhere refused to be considered 
a preacher, declaring that it was his office simply to go 
around and seek out, and bring under the minister's 
notice, anxious and troubled souls. These years were 
years of growth such as his own denomination had not 
known through that region for a long while, and never 
since has seen. The revival spirit went from church 
to church. Drowsy Christians started up where he 
came, as sleeping soldiers at bugle call. Formal pro- 
fessors thawed out into a spring-time of devotion as 
frozen clods thaw out when April winds breathe across 



58 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

the fields. Hundreds bowed as penitent sinners at the 
Saviour's feet, and rose to walk in newness of life with 
their risen Lord. 

Many who labored with him in these seasons have 
passed on with their brother toiler, and entered into 
rest. Others remain. Let them add their testimony 
here. 

Rev. W. O. Holman, of Bunker Hill Church, Bos- 
ton, writes : " I was studying for the ministry in the 
city of New York, and was supplying the Baptist 
church in Amenia, twenty-five miles east of Pough- 
keepsie, a church which was at the time pastorless, 
when our acquaintance began. A revival had broken 
out in our meetings, and Uncle John was soon on 
hand. One Sunday, while I was preaching, a short, 
thick-set man, with a genial countenance, came in. 
He took a seat near the pulpit, and putting his eyes 
intently on me kept his lips moving, as if in assent or 
prayer. At the close of the service he grasped my 
hand, and was so hearty and cordial and enthusiastic 
that I was almost repelled. He interested me never- 
theless, and we were soon the best of friends. Blessed 
be God for the hour that brought us together. I have 
known many a good man after the flesh, but never 
another such as he. 

" Together we travelled from house to house, over 
hill and dale, through cold and snow, rain and sun- 
shine, seeking for sinners to lead to Christ. Never 
shall I forget his apt, earnest, pointed appeals. The 
fruits of that meeting were glorious. Old feuds among 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 59 

believers were healed, and from fifty to seventy souls 
converted to the Lord. A year or more afterward I 
was ordained and settled at Poughkeepsie, and so be- 
came the pastor of Uncle John. There we worked 
together in a most blessed season in the spring of 
1858. On a single Sabbath I was privileged to give 
the hand of fellowship to sixty-three new believers, 
many of whom still survive, and some of whom were 
permitted to drop the tear of affection over one who 
helped guide their returning feet to the Shepherd and 
Bishop of souls. 

"The next August we went to Beekman, where 
there was a little feeble church, for a four days' meet- 
ing. It was right in harvest-time, but the people 
flocked together, and the literal harvest was nothing 
alongside the harvest of souls which there was gathered 
in. The four days' service ran into four weeks, and 
it really seemed as if Uncle John's heart and head 
were in heaven, while his feet yet trod the earth. 
That community will tell of his toils and travels, during 
those weeks, forever. 

" Thence we went to Fishkill Plains and Shenan- 
doah, and oh ! the sweet wonders of redeeming grace 
that were displayed. Uncle John seemed divinely 
anointed. If ever soul revelled in the love of Christ, he 
did. He testified to every one who would listen by 
day, and then far into the night he would wrestle for 
anxious souls. Winter after winter in Poughkeepsie, 
during my five years' pastorate, he would come home 
long enough to labor for awhile. God uniformly gave 



6o UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

His blessing, and the precious revivals of those early 
years are hallowed in my heart forever. Oh for one 
more hour with the dear old man, one more prayer 
together, one more exhortation, one Scripture expo- 
sition such as he used to give ; but alas ! we shall see his 
face and hear his voice no more." 

Rev. J. Donnelly, of Ionia, Michigan, says : " In 
August of 1858 Uncle John came out to Beekman, 
where I, then a student at Hamilton, was supplying the 
church. I shall never forget the day he came to my 
study. I was busy writing out a sermon for Sunday, 
and was about half done, when a rap at my door 
brought him in. Greetings were soon exchanged, a 
season of prayer followed, and in thirty minutes from 
the time he entered we were out calling and at mis- 
sionary work. I did not see how I could go, at first, 
and leave my sermon half done. But I went. That 
sermon was never finished. Before Sunday came, aye, 
before the first night, there were anxious souls inquir- 
ing after Christ, and my subject had to be changed. 
Over forty-five persons, as the result of the work thus 
begun, were added to the church, and of the human 
agencies employed Uncle John must be accounted first. 
For what I then and there learned, for the breaking-in 
I got in the matter of dealing with souls, I have 
thanked John Vassar since a thousand times. During 
this revival I was much with him, and can testify that 
the last thing before his eyes closed was prayer, and 
the first when his eyes opened. After an experience of 
twenty years I am free to say that I never knew a man 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 61 

who prayed so much, and I never knew a man who 
lived so constantly in the sunshine of a Saviour's pres- 
ence and love. If ever a man lived Christ, it was John 
E. Vassar." 

Of these same meetings Rev. J. L. Benedict, of 
White Plains, N. Y., a college classmate of Mr. Don- 
nelly, gives this account : " On entering the village of 
Beekman on a visit to my friend, who was supplying 
the little church there, I did not know just where to 
find him ; so, accosting a man who was nearing me and 
walking very fast, I inquired. The stranger thus ad- 
dressed pointed out the place, and in the next breath 
said, "Are you a Christian, my young friend?" I 
answered' that I hoped I was. A few more words 
passed, and then he went on, remarking that he was 
' in a hurry to look up some sheep. ' After greeting my 
fellow-student, and being introduced to the family in 
which he made his home, I remarked that I had just 
met a crazy man up the road in search of some sheep. 
The whole group laughed outright, and my friend said, 
' Why, that was John Vassar, our county missionary ; 
and the sheep that he is in search of are the Lord's.' 
A few days afterward Uncle John wished me to ac- 
company him to the old Fishkill church, a few miles 
below, where the venerable Elder Robinson had 
preached for many years. This aged minister was not 
friendly to protracted meetings, yet he and his church 
had confidence in Uncle John, and readily consented 
to open their house of worship for a week. The very 
first evening five young men rose for prayer, and within 

John E. Vassar. ^ 



62 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

a month between thirty and forty made a public pro- 
fession of their faith. One day I accompanied Uncle 
John in his visits, and we called at the house of Mr. 
S., where there were several young people, uncon- 
verted then. On our approach they ran into another 
room to get out of the way. He saw the movement, 
and went straight in where they were. Then, with 
all the tender sympathy of his great heart, he entreated 
them to yield to Christ, and falling on his knees 
pleaded for them separately name by name. Before 
we left the house they were in tears, and were praying 
for themselves. They all became living witnesses for 
Christ. During the course of the day we stopped un- 
der the shade of a large oak to rest, and while stopping 
there I took occasion to ask him if he always thus fol- 
lowed up those who sought to avoid him. He replied 
that he did not, that ordinarily it might irritate them, 
but that in cases where he believed the Spirit of God 
was working, and especially in revival seasons, he 
would so hunt them up. 

" To make more clear his meaning he told me of 
an instance which occurred not long before, but 
charged me never to repeat it publicly, lest it should 
excite a laugh and divert attention from more serious 
concerns. Somewhere in a meeting he had met a 
young man troubled evidently about his salvation, and 
apparently more than half persuaded to settle the con- 
flict by out-and-out committal of himself to the Lord. 
One day Uncle John felt the impression very strong 
that he ought to go and see this wavering soul. It was 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 6s 

nearly noon, and the men on the farm were coming in 
from the field. All got around the table for dinner 
save the one that it was desired to reach. The father 
said that the son would probably be in presently, but 
he did not come. Uncle John feared that he was keep- 
ing out of the way purposely, and determined to go 
out and look him up. Through all the out-buildings 
he searched and called, but without success, and was 
about to give up the quest when he chanced to spy the 
door of a corn-crib open, and entering it, in a large 
hogshead he found the young man concealed. Climb- 
ing right over into it by the trembling, confounded, 
humiliated sinner's side, he began to talk and pray, 
and there the penitent settled the question to be for- 
ever the Lord's. Afterward he confessed to Uncle 
John that when he saw him hunting around he took a 
sort of malicious satisfaction in thinking he had evaded 
him. The devil was making his last effort to retain in 
his clutch a troubled soul. But when discovery came, 
then over the fugitive crept such a sense of shame, and 
meanness, and foolishness, and wickedness, as made 
him loathe himself, and prepared him to fall as a weak 
and guilty thing into the Saviour's arms. Very dis- 
tinctly Uncle John affirmed that it would not answer 
to so treat every case, and very solemnly he adjured 
me as a young preacher never to tell anything in 
preaching that would make men see me when they 
ought to see Christ, or think of my adroitness or 
shrewdness when they ought to be thinking of His 
love and grace. Then, having thus counselled me, he 



64 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

bowed under that grand old oak and wrestled for a 
blessing as once in the past Jacob did. 

" More than twenty years have passed since I spent 
those three happy weeks with John E. Vassar, but I 
learned more practical theology, more about the work- 
ing of God's Spirit on the hearts of men, more about 
the way to deal with the impenitent or awakened, than 
in any like period of all my life. Indeed, the keynote 
to my life-work in the ministry I got then and there, 
and his name has been in sacred remembrance from 
that time to this." 

An aged woman, Mrs. A. B. Minor, of New Haven 
County, Conn., contributes these items, bringing out 
several characteristics of the man. 

"One winter, when Mr. Vassar was assisting his 
nephew, then pastor at Armenia, N. Y., he came over 
to Sharon, Conn., not more than half a dozen miles 
away, where was then my home. For my unconverted 
son, about twenty years of age, he at once became in- 
terested, facing him with this question soon as they 
met, 'Tell me, G., do you love the Lord Jesus?' 
From that interview my child dated his hope. He has 
been for eleven years now in the heavenly home, and I 
think with what joy he must have given welcome to 
the man who did so much to guide him there. 

" There was another man in the neighborhood far 
from righteousness. Mr. Vassar went over to his 
house, and taking up a little child belonging there he 
said, ' I love these little ones, and want their parents 
to bring them up for God.' The stout-hearted father 



OFF ON FURLOUGH, 65 

melted right down, and soon in our meetings his voice 
was leading us in prayer. 

" Another aged man, very moral and upright, but 
long oppressed with the fear that he had been given 
over by God, was, under Mr. Vassar's labors, led out 
into the light, and brought where he could praise and 
pray. So God blessed his efforts, and when I think 
of those days in '58 and '59, and '60, and how the 
dear young people, as well as those older, were drawn 
toward him, and not only toward him, but to that 
Saviour whom he served, I bless God for ever having 
known him, and for the sweet remembrances that 
come rising up." 

Rev. G. F. Hendrickson, of Fairview, N. J., sends 
these recollections: "A week after accepting the 
•pastoral care of the South Dover Church, in the 
spring of 1857, Uncle John as county missionary came 
upon that field. At once our meetings began to fill 
up, for he would pass no one without inviting him to 
the house of God. Many who rarely if ever attended 
church were through his efforts brought there, and a 
dozen or fifteen found Christ, some of whom are with 
him on the other side of time and death to-day. Dur- 
ing these labors Uncle John was taken very ill ; and it 
fell to my lot to nurse and wait upon him ; and never 
did I see such faith and trust. Again and again he 
would say to us when recovery seemed improbable, ' I 
shall not die, but live to declare God's salvation.' 
Often that sick-room was like the gate of heaven. 

' Two years later he again aided me in what was 
6* 



66 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

the most powerful revival that church has ever known. 
Among ministers and members of our churches all 
through that region his memory will long abide a pre- 
cious and sacred trust." 

Mrs. A. E. Beckwith, of Stissing, N. Y., gives 
these recollections and impressions of the period lying 
between 1854 and 1862 : " It was a great pleasure to 
see Uncle John come into our home, for he always 
brought so much of heaven along. The all-absorbing 
passion of his soul was love to God and the perishing 
around him. In the winter of 1857-58 he began vis- 
iting in our neighborhood, and evening meetings at the 
school-house were begun. So intense was the interest 
developed that the services had to be removed to the 
church. The whole town of Stanford was aroused, 
and nearly two hundred are believed to have turned to 
God. Later, while Dr. Holman served as pastor, and 
especially in i860 or 1861, a powerful religious awak- 
ening followed his visits and the preaching of the 
Word. He would take different localities day after 
day, appointing in each a meeting for the afternoon. 
One day — perhaps at one or two o'clock — he came 
hurrying into our house, asking for something to eat. 
His boots were all soaked with snow water, and he had 
eaten nothing so far that day. He had fasted till he 
could get an assurance of a blessing on the labor un- 
dertaken, and now it had been given. In these efforts 
of his he would kneel and pray with the anxious any- 
where he found them, in the barn, the field, even in 
the snow along the road." 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 67 

Mrs. E. A. Ketcham, of Dover Plains, N. Y., 
says : " The world has sustained a loss in his removal. 
The story of his life and labors, if it could be written, 
would prove a blessing to thousands. I remember 
with joy and thankfulness his labors in our church at 
•different times. His last visit especially we all recall. 
He stopped at my son's to dinner, and two little 
prayer-meetings were held in that single hour. 

Uncle John's true yoke-fellow during this Dutchess 
County work was Rev. C. B. Post, of Dover Plains. 
With the exception possibly of his own pastor, and the 
compiler of this book, no other minister knew him dur- 
ing those years so well. He no longer shares in the 
struggles and victories of Christ's militant Church, but 
Mrs. Post from her home near the " Golden Gate," in 
the far West, sends these memorials of those years : 

" It is nearly twenty-four years since he first came 
to our house, and during the seven years followng he 
and my husband labored together weeks and months in 
our own or other towns. Brother Vassar would com- 
monly go first, talking and praying with the people ; 
and when he saw the mercy-cloud beginning to 
gather, he would send for Mr. Post, saying, ' Come, 
bishop, the Lord wants you to feed the sheep that He 
shall use me to bring together. ' 

" One winter, when coming to labor with our own 
church, a heavy snow-storm set in. It continued till 
the roads were blocked. In this condition they kept 
for several days. The people could not get out, and 
meetings were not to be thought of. But he could not 



68 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

be snow-bound. He would flounder through the drifts 
somehow, often kneeling in them to thank God for 
mercies granted or plead with God for mercies needed. 

" Once when- talking with our Sunday-school about 
the death of his little son he said, ' When I laid Johnny 
down out of my arms into the arms of the dear Saviour, 
this world and I forever parted company.' We all 
believed that utterance was true, and felt persuaded 
that the partnership there and thus dissolved had 
never since again been entered into. 

" He once gave me an idea never to be forgotten. 
Something was being said about ill-treatment which he 
had encountered, on a certain visit. He quickly re- 
plied, ' A sinner cannot abuse old John Vassar. The 
poor lost soul ! oh, how I love him !' 

" A marked trait in his character was his love for 
God's ministers. No unjust or severe criticism ever 
escaped his lips. They were the Lord's chosen mes- 
sengers, and he loved them for the Master's sake. The 
affection between Mr. Post and him was mutual and 
very strong. It is no less strong now that they see 
the King in His beauty, and are forever with the 
Lord." 

Of this same period Mrs. Sarah L. Lyon, Pough- 
keepsie, tells : " It was in the early part of March, 
i860, that this man of God was directed to my father's 
house. The winter had been unusually severe, so that 
the drifts of snow yet lay over the fences, and the 
road leading up over the hill to our home was fairly 
blocked. We were therefore surprised to see a stranger 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 69 

on foot pushing along it, and finally making for our 
door. As he got nearer he was recognized as John 
Vassar, of temperance renown. To my mother he was 
a welcome visitor, but not to me. I would have es- 
caped the interview but for the importunity of my 
mother, who said, ' Stay and listen to a man who has 
travelled through this snow knee-deep to do us good. ' 
I tried to repulse him when he began to plead with 
me, by talking of universal salvation, which in my im- 
penitence I had tried to find safety in ; but his clear 
reasoning quickly swept such arguments away. Then 
he got us all to kneel while he poured out his soul in 
prayer. And such a prayer we never heard. We 
were all melted down. His visit was short, but it was 
wonderful. Three of our names were added to the list 
that he called his ' dear children in Christ Jesus,' and 
a fire of sacred love was kindled in our hearts, never, 
we trust, to go out. The home-roof of my childhood 
was long since exchanged for another, to which I have 
ever esteemed it an honor to give him welcome, and 
under which children now gather who have been taught 
to rise up and call him blessed. 

" The benediction was not confined to our house- 
hold. A revival in the neighborhood broke out, which 
spread wide, and proved lasting ; and many, I believe, 
will, to and through eternity, sing love's redeeming 
song from the work then and there done by this good 
man." 

Another says : " I cannot now name the date, but 
about twenty years ago Mr. S. was drawing a load 



70 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

along the road when he met a stranger, who stopped 
and said, ' What may I call your name, sir ?' The one 
addressed replied, - My name is S. ' ' Ah, you are 
a deacon in the church here, are you not ?' was the re- 
sponse. ' I am, sir,' was the answer. ' Well, deacon,' 
said the stranger, ' my name is Vassar — John Vassar ; 
now, is your wife a Christian ?' ' I am sorry to say 
that she is not.' ' Have you any objection to my call- 
ing and conversing with your family ?' ' Not the least, 
not the least.' 'God bless you, Brother S. Good 
morning.' Uncle John passed along, and the deacon 
went on and turned into a field with his load. He 
had not got more than thirty rods when the thought 
came to him, ' How is this ? Here is a stranger more 
concerned for the salvation of my household than I am. 
This is not right. This won't do.' Mr. S. jumped 
off his load, unhitched the horses from the sled, tied 
them, and started for the house. He got in just in 
time to hear the prayer. That load was not moved 
again for six weeks. Mrs. S. was converted, and 
forty-two others united with the Kent and East Fish- 
kill Church." 

For obvious reasons the following touching state- 
ment is given without its author's name : 

" Uncle John came to my father's house for the 
first time more than a quarter of a century ago. My 
father was at that time an inebriate, and our home was 
suffering under the blight of rum. His coming was the 
beginning of better days. It resulted in the conversion 
of the father and all seven of us children. Two of the 



OFF ON FURLOUGH, 71 

children are now in the -ministry, two others, together 
with the parents, have died in hope, and we are waiting 
for a happy family reunion on the river's other side. 

1 ' Fifteen years later, in company with my brother, 
he visited the same house, and that interview resulted 
in the salvation of the man and his wife then living 
there." 

To all these memories of twenty years ago we might 
add dozens treasured up in our own mind, for from 
1856 to 1862 we labored together in full half the towns 
of the county we called home. Although settled in 
the pastorate at Amenia, we went as other ministers 
around did at that time, to help in neighboring churches 
as occasion might require. Again and again in these 
campaigns we have known him to walk twenty miles in 
a single day, looking up wanderers or seekers, and then 
come into the evening service showing no sign of weari- 
ness in motion, or look, or voice. 

Once in trudging along in a snowy road he was 
overtaken by a gentleman in a sleigh, who was per- 
sonally a very estimable man, but not a Christian. He 
knew Uncle John by sight, and like many others did 
not admire him, but rather regarded him as fanatical 
or half insane. Whether to ask him to ride or not 
was the question in his mind. Courtesy said " Yes ;" 
prejudice said " No." Courtesy carried the day, how- 
ever, and the invitation was given. An opportunity 
like that never was allowed to slip. The ride was not 
accounted of so much consequence, but there would 
be such a chance to press home truth as the Master 



72 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

had that day at the well of Jacob. It was embraced 
to the uttermost, and one man heard that hour salva- 
tion urged as he certainly never had heard it urged be- 
fore. What the immediate effect was is not known, 
but a few months later this wayside hearer, then in the 
very prime of life, came to know experimentally the 
meaning of those words, " If any man be in Christ he 
is a new creature." Immediately after old things had 
passed away the two men met at church, and, deeply 
moved, clasped hands as brothers beloved in the Lord. 
The circumstances must be very, very peculiar if they 
ever hindered him from pressing religion on the mind. 
He was not indelicate, or rude, or blustering in ap- 
proaching men, but he remembered that one divinely 
inspired had said, " In season, out of season, reprove, 
rebuke, exhort," and so he could not stand " on 
the proprieties," as many do. Near Fishkill he once 
made a call that seemed at first inopportune. A young 
man had just entered the house, who was soon to be 
married to an excellent Christian daughter in the 
home. The prospective husband claimed no hope in 
the Saviour. Either accidentally or purposely, we 
know not which, Uncle John was shown into the room 
where the parties sat. He took in the situation at a 
glance, but, not in the least disconcerted, pressed on 
one of his two hearers the claims of God, and finding 
him more than half persuaded to accept of Christ, he 
closed the interview by proposing that the lady should 
herself then and there kneel and present the case of her 
friend to God. For a moment maidenly delicacy led 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 73 

her to hesitate ; then seeing his evident concern they 
all bowed together, and she pleaded for the salvation 
of the man with whom she was to walk the pathway of 
life. He was soon a partaker of her faith and trust, 
'and stood beside her a fellow-laborer in the Church of 
Christ. 

One day, while walking from Poughkeepsie to Pleas- 
ant Valley, he overtook a man driving an ox-team 
along the road. Walking on together in conversation 
it was but a minute or two before the Name that is 
above every name was on the lips of Uncle John, and 
the subject ever uppermost was broached. With the 
utmost frankness, and with a trembling voice, the man 
declared that for weeks he had been secretly trying to 
grope his way to God. He had said nothing to any 
one, and no one had said anything to him. All was 
uncertainty with him and gloom. That Saviour who 
" must needs go through Samaria" so long ago, be- 
cause there was a lost soul waiting to hear words of 
life, sent the right man to this inquiring soul that day. 
Uncle John knew how to meet a case like that. His 
words fitted that penitent's wants as the notch in the 
arrow is fitted by the string of the archer's bow. The 
mode of a sinner's acceptance was seen that very hour. 
By the roadside they knelt in prayer together, and 
then they parted, this convert, like one in the olden 
time, going on his way rejoicing. 

Hardly had they separated before Uncle John saw a 
man ploughing in a field some distance from the high- 
way. All aglow with the recent interview the ques- 

John E. Vassar. 7 



74 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

tion started, " May I not find yonder another such a 
case ? Who knows ?" Across the lot he hurried, and 
strange as it may seem, he did find another soul 
anxious and ready to accept of Christ. In the freshly 
turned furrows the two knelt, and either then or very 
soon afterward the peace of God entered this heart 
too. 

In this town of Pleasant Valley he saw some won- 
derful triumphs of redeeming love. His old friend, 
Rev. B. F. Wile, of the Presbyterian Church, often 
got him, for a week or two, when he was not otherwise 
engaged, to aid him in some of those times of ingather- 
ing which that church so signally enjoyed. 

In the little Baptist church at Salt Point, in the same 
town, there were in those far-off years seasons of re- 
freshing too. Amid them some who are with their 
Lord now, and some who on earth are useful still, 
started for the kingdom and the crown. 

In the autumn of 1862 the section of country around 
Carmel, Putnam County, N. Y., enjoyed Uncle John's 
labors for some weeks, a very minute and interesting 
account of which has been furnished by Rev. J. J. 
Townsend, now of Chester, Vermont, at that time 
studying for the ministry, but at home on a visit. 
Only some extracts from it can be given. 

" The evening following Uncle John's arrival in the 
neighborhood, I had an engagement to lecture in the 
Nichols school-house, and he met me there. After my 
little talk he followed in exhortation and prayer. At 
the close of the service he said, ' You are just the 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 75 

young man I am looking for. Come with me. The 
Master has work for you. ' 

" The next night we took another neighborhood, 
he first thoroughly canvassing it by day. The house 
was crowded. I preached, and he followed in an ex- 
hortation the most solemn and subduing I ever heard. 
The Master was there, and sinners were crying for sal- 
vation before the meeting closed. 

' There were eight of these school-districts within 
the bounds of the Carmel church. From one to 
another of these we went, and he from house to house. 
God triumphed gloriously. The whole field glowed 
with religious life. The meetings grew so large that 
they had to be carried to the church. Pastor Clapp 
then supervised, or, as Uncle John said, became 
' Major-General/ 

" For three months we were together thus by day 
and night. One day, while out on our rounds, we saw 
a man in the field husking corn. Uncle John said, 
' Let us kneel down here and pray, and then go after 
him.' We did so. Soon as we began to talk with 
him we found out that he was a man at whose house 
we had just called. He had a wife and three children, 
and none of them entertained a hope of pardoned sin. 
He was invited first to attend the meeting. He refused 
flatly, declared he was a Universalist, but admitted 
that he never prayed. Then Uncle John poured out 
upon him all the truth of God. I never saw him more 
.valiant for his Master, and think it was one of his 
grandest hours. With tears streaming down his cheeks 



76 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

the man said, ' Pray for me,' and down among the 
stalks we all three bowed, and all three prayed. He 
and three others from his family were soon in the 
kingdom. 

" This scene is one of many. Strong oaks on every 
hand bowed before the mighty on-movings of God's 
all-conquering grace. 

" We one day met a man on the road, resting his 
team, who, on being approached, loudly avowed him- 
self an infidel. So tremendous was the pressure under 
which Uncle John put him that in five minutes, with 
wonder and penitence written on his face, he gladly 
bowed to have prayer offered in his behalf, and on 
arising and parting he said, ' I need this Saviour, and 
will seek him.' 

" One evening, as we were going into meeting, we 
met a gentleman near the door. Uncle John ad- 
dressed him courteously, and said, ' My dear friend, 
do you love Jesus ?' Said the gentleman, ' I do not 
know that that concerns you, sir.' ' Oh, yes, it does,' 
said Uncle John ; ' in these days of rebellion does it 
not concern every citizen as to which side every other 
citizen may take ? How much more when a world is in 
rebellion against God should we be concerned to know 
who is on the Lord's side.' The man's lips were 
sealed. Before the meeting was over he rose and 
asked the prayers of God's people. And thus it was 
in every case. I certainly saw him personally ad- 
dress hundreds, and in no solitary instance was he 
repulsed. 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 77 

"For myself I can say that this three months' 
tuition in the school of Christ, with John Vassar as tu- 
tor, has been worth more to me in winning souls than 
any like period of my life. His religion was not that 
of sentiment, but a soul-subduing force, fed at the 
fountain of almighty and undecaying promise, and it 
helped me to heights before unknown. 

"Aswe parted, he to return to his home, and I 
to go back to Hamilton, after a season of delightful 
prayer he said, ' Good-by ; God bless you. Keep 
looking up, my boy, keep looking up.' 

" When John Vassar was removed from the high 
places of the field, truly a great man had fallen in 
Israel. He to whom the King holds out the sceptre, 
as with him, is an irreparable loss to any church, any 
community, or any age." 

Now, what do all these toils and triumphs repre- 
sent ? They represent homes made happier ; hearts 
blessed with a heavenly peace ; the wicked turned 
into penitents ; sick-beds solaced with comforts such 
as earth is powerless to give ; graves that had other- 
wise been hopeless bordered with a brighter than 
noonday light ; a stubborn, unbelieving world yield- 
ing converts to the Church ; a quickened Church shed- 
ding on the world a brightness like the resurrection 
morning's. 

Conversion must be recognized as a constituent 
power of history. That deep sorrow for sin, that clear 
and shining sense of God's forgiveness, that unearthly 
peace and joy, that glowing love for Christ and for His 

7* 



78 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR, 

saints, that glad hope of heaven, that desire to do 
others good which we call " experience" and the 
world calls " delusion," all lay at the bottom of that 
man's life who rang out the old ideas of Greece and 
Rome, and rang in a new age ; they all lay at the bot- 
tom of that man's life who lifted his hand in the face 
of papal Europe and gave the signal for its disruption ; 
they all lay at the bottom of that man's life who in a 
corrupt nation and a degenerating Church more than a 
century ago cried, " The world is my parish," and 
went out to awaken it. And revivals, what are they 
but .renewals of the apostolic age ? Even among good 
men there is a tendency to let the heavenly fire die 
out — to let the immortal vitality and infinite resources 
of our holy religion go unfelt and unseen. Christ's 
churches forget that they are to subdue the world, 
and quietly settle into their quarters, and then God 
sends some man with clarion call to bid the slumbering 
host bestir itself. Doubtless there will be in all such 
awakenings some extravagances. This world is full of 
weak, ill-balanced, blundering folks. Either they must 
go unsaved, or else a miracle more stupendous than 
was ever wrought must keep them from acting extrav- 
agantly. The second supposition is improbable. The 
first may God avert. The composure of death is worse 
than the exuberance of life. And we may be sure 
that without these arousings that old Christianity which 
gave the world apostles, and missionaries, and martyrs, 
will be replaced by another which will give it only for- 
mal church-goers. 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 79 

Nor is it any argument against such seasons of 
quickening as the few last pages have been dealing 
with, that much of their early promise seems to be 
blasted, and drop fruitlessly away. That is always so 
with the literal bud and bloom which May days bring. 
Multitudes of people are naturally unstable, and their 
instability will be likely to affect the religious life more 
or less. We question whether there is any ground for 
the prevalent idea that persons converted in revivals 
are less likely to " hold out," or "hold on." That 
will depend on what they have to " hold on" to. If 
it is nothing but a mere stir of the sensibilities, of 
course they will drop away. A very sober Christian 
scholar says, "Let the spring come, though it bring 
weeds, and let us neither nurse the weeds nor frost-bite 
the wheat in our impatience to keep them down." It 
might be added, moreover, that much which accom- 
panies a revival of religion is not of itself religious, and 
it will drop away as the husk drops from the ear of 
corn when ripe ; and much more that is religious is 
not lost when it seems to be, but simply takes on 
another shape. Fruit-trees shed their sheets of blos- 
soms, and for a space thereafter they make but very 
little show. Ignorant cavillers might sneer and say 
that their May wealth of promise and beauty was a 
short - lived thing. Exactly. But on those twigs 
whence the bloom had fallen is forming and maturing 
what is of far greater worth. And when the more 
manifest tokens of a religious awakening disappear, 



80 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

and the tongue of unbelief talks merrily and flippantly 
about the change, in many a soul there is quietly de- 
veloping a devout, consecrated, active life. Anyhow, 
many an eye running over this page will look back 
through mists of glad tears to such times of grace and 
mercy, and many a heart will plead for their repetition. 
Indeed who is there that under these recitals of con- 
quering love is not impelled to cry, " Send as Thou wilt, 
O Lord, only let Thy saints not slumber, nor sinners 
perish in their sins " ? For us as Christian individuals 
and churches to go year after year, and see no lives 
regenerated, no hearts blessed with an unearthly 
peace, " is it not like standing among the gilded bottles 
of a dispensary, while death is desolating the town and 
your skill is inapt and your remedies impotent to save 
a single victim ?" 

We enter on no defence of modern revivals here. 
Less than this in passing, however, we could hardly 
say. 

But by this time some one is ready to ask, what 
was meant by heading this chapter " Off on Fur- 
lough " ? They reasonably and naturally ask, where 
the furlough for Uncle John has come in ? Well, if 
by furlough is signified resting spell, he has not yet 
found it, nor did he ever find it till the last months of 
life were being spent. But these varied engagements 
and miscellaneous services came in after retiring from 
his first Tract Society labors, and before returning to 
its employ. 



OFF ON FURLOUGH. 81 

When his work in the Dutchess Association closed 
he had sixteen years yet to stay on earth. They were 
the most eventful and fruitful of his life. He goes 
to work now on a broader field. We will follow him 
there. 



82 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GOING TO THE FRONT, 

" Lo, a cloud's about to vanish 

From the day ; 
Lo, the right's about to conquer — 

Clear the way ! 
And a brazen wrong to crumble 

Into clay." 

The dark days of 1861 came on. The nation was 
drifting into war. Few believed it, however, till the 
blow was absolutely struck. Then loyal millions arose 
and with one voice said, " Die who will or may, this 
land must live." 

Everywhere were heard the shoutings of captains, 
the rattle of armor, the tramp of marching feet. 
Uncle John had been opposed to war. He had looked 
upon it as always a calamity, and frequently a crime. 
Again and again, regarding it through his strong affec- 
tions and tender sympathies, he had shudderingly cried, 
" How long, O Lord, how long?" He had seen in the 
foe defeated and plundered a man and a brother. He 
had glimpsed the mutilations and barbarities and butch- 
eries which war of necessity involved. He had heard 
the wails of orphanage and widowhood, and so recoiled 
from every appeal to arms. 

But when the cup of trembling was put into his 
country's hands, and put into its hands unsought, he 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 8 3 

saw, as others did, that whatever its bitterness it must 
not be pushed away. For two years he listened, as did 
many heavy hearts, to tidings of drawn battles or de- 
feats. Then he felt that his time had come, and that 
he had found his work. It was not to serve in the 
ranks : he was too old for that. It was not to act as 
an officer : for that he had no training and no taste. 
Another and a higher call was in his ears. There were 
sick and suffering men to be ministered to temporally 
and spiritually. That should be his task. He went to 
the Tract Society again, and asked if he could not have 
a new commission, a commission to engage in army 
labor. It was granted him in June, 1863, and he was 
soon inside the Federal lines, 

" Amid a wilderness of graves, 
With death on every hand." 

Lee had started northward on that last invasion 
which he ever ventured, and whose issues half a dozen 
States a little later hung breathless on. Hooker's 
army was in full pursuit. The excitement was at white 
heat all over Maryland and along the Pennsylvania 
line. The cloud gathering so blackly was about to 
break. The rival hosts drew closer together, and 
finally grappled in one of the deadliest struggles of 
these latter days, # on the ridges and slopes around Get- 
tysburg. 

It was the Sunday before the fight. The old Army 
of the Potomac lay stretched from Frederick City south- 
ward along the Monocacy. The " One Hundred and 



84 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

Fiftieth New York, " of which the writer was chaplain, 
had camped on a rough hillside. The regiment had as 
yet seen but little service ; the march for days had 
been heavy ; no one knew what moment orders might 
come to move on : so our meeting had been a short 
one and a small one that day. As it was closing, who 
should come in but Uncle John ! These were all 
Dutchess County men, hundreds of whom he knew. 
Tired as they were, they were not too tired to wel- 
come him. Moreover, he was recently from home, and 
to grasp his hand and listen to his voice seemed half as 
good as being there. 

Before daylight the advance was sounded, and all 
were tumbling out and falling, into line. The columns 
went pushing along the artillery -rutted roads as if on 
a race toward those Pennsylvania hills. Uncle John 
was fifty years old or more, but he kept up with the 
best. Not only kept up, but often would shoulder for 
a mile or two the gun or knapsack of some poor fellow 
ready to give out. We missed him before getting to 
Gettysburg, and weeks passed before our men again 
saw his face. After the fight was over he became sep- 
arated in some way from our troops, and was captured 
by Stuart's cavalry. " When brought into the pres- 
ence of the general and questioned as a suspected spy, 
he instantly dissipated the suspicions of the officers by 
his frank and fearless words for the Master. ' I am 
working as a colporteur of the American Tract Society, 
to try and save the souls of the dear boys that fall 
around me daily. General, do you love Jesus? ' The 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 85 

courtly general answered, ' I know that good old So- 
ciety, and have no fear of its emissaries. ' ' But, my 
dear general, do you love Jesus ?' The puzzled officer 
was relieved by the suggestion of those who ha^ 
arrested Uncle John, and who were already restive un- 
der his close questionings. ' General, ' said they, ' take 
the man's promise that he will not tell of our where- 
abouts for twenty-four hours, and let us see him out 
of our lines, or we will have a prayer-meeting from here 
to Richmond.* And so it was decided. He made his 
way back into the Union lines, and was once more 
among friends." 

He was only inside of the Confederate camp about 
ten hours, but it is doubtful whether in a like space so 
much Gospel was ever urged upon the men he met. 
And their supposition that he would have kept it up 
had he been held longer was perfectly correct. Had 
he been put in the foulest corner of Libby Prison, or 
Castle Thunder, the story of salvation would have 
rung there as it did in the jail at Philippi so long ago. 

How he employed himself in the army one of the 
chaplains, Rev. E. J. Hamilton, tells us in a racy little 
sketch of the man which he prepared for publication 
while the war was yet going on. " Mark him as he 
enters camp. In his cheery way he says, ' How are 
you, dear boys ? I am glad to see you. I guess I 
have got a little something for you ; I was thinking 
you'd be wanting some paper or needles, for the pay- 
master has not been around in a good while, has he ? 
I can't carry much, but just step up, boys, and I will 

John E. Vaasar. ° 



86 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

give you what I have. ' Both his hands are busy dis- 
pensing sheets of paper, and pens, and thread, with 
skilful and impartial generosity. After these gifts 
tracts and religious reading are produced from the 
black satchel, and distributed to many glad recipients. 
Now his stock is exhausted, and after some excellent 
story or terse remark, he adds, " Now, boys, don't 
forget the prayer- meeting the chaplain is going to have 
this evening. Come, dear boys, and let us ask God 
to bless us. ' ' We will, we will, ' is the response of 
many voices, and possibly the evening hour will show 
that the invitation has been accepted by many silent, 
softened hearts that did not dare to speak. In the 
prayer-meeting he is a great power, for he generally 
imparts to his fellow-worshippers much of his own 
spirit. I first met him in the log church of our brigade. 
On that occasion he moved us all. After this I was 
going away for ten days, and asked him to look after 
my boys. He consented. On my return I was pre- 
pared for something of a revival, but not to learn that 
the chapel was crowded, and that meetings were kept 
up three times a day. When I entered it that after- 
noon what a scene presented itself ! The place was 
half Babel, half Bochim. Many of the soldiers were 
kneeling, some praying, some sobbing, some groaning, 
some loudly responding. Uncle John was seemingly 
the most engaged of all. After the principal prayer 
was over he rose and in his sweet tenor voice began a 
favorite hymn. All joined, and the praise went up 
through the white trembling canvas roof. He had 



GOING TO THE FRONT, 87 

instituted the morning assembly for inquirers and 
young converts, that in the afternoon for the prayers 
and exhortations of Christians generally, while more 
formal exercises occupied the meeting at night. 

' The evening service was the most important. 
Generally there was a sermon by one of the chaplains, 
after which those who loved the Lord and those who 
desired to do so were requested to remain. Com- 
monly very few went away, and then Uncle John's 
work began. After some prayers and hymns he would 
make a short address, and conclude by asking those 
who felt themselves in need of salvation and who desired 
Christians to pray for them to stand up. And then 
what earnestness in persuading sinners to declare for 
Christ ! He would look over the assembly sometimes 
for a minute till some one rose. ' There's one/ says 
Uncle John, with visible emotion. ' Bless the Lord. 
There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repent- 
eth. ' Then after a short pause he would add in the 
most inviting tones, ' And is there no other precious 
soul here that wants a Saviour? Yes, there's an- 
other. God bless you, dear brother. Oh, it was for 
such that Jesus died. Jesus, the Son of God,' and 
Uncle John would sing, 

' He died for you, 

He died for me, 
He died to set poor sinners free ; 

Oh, who's like Jesus 
That died on the tree ? ' 

■ 

" Another pause. ' And is there not another one 



88 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

who wants to love this blessed Saviour ? Yes, I see 
you, dear brother. I knew there would be more. I 
feel that God is here to-night. And there's another, 
and another, and another. Oh, praise the Lord ! 
Precious Saviour, thy blood cleanses a universe from 
guilt. * In this way he would go on till perhaps a dozen 
or twenty had risen ; then the meeting would be dis- 
missed, and Uncle John and the chaplains would tarry 
with the anxious, conversing and praying according to 
the need of each individual case. 

• • During such an awakening Uncle John labors 
night and day. As he set out one morning to follow 
the impressions of the previous evening I went with 
him down the company streets. Entering a tent where 
two out of the four occupants were Christians, he ad- 
dressed himself to each man and led in a short prayer. 
Then he asked for a sergeant whom he knew to be 
under deep conviction. The young man came in. 
Uncle John read the look of trouble on his face, and 
sadly and tenderly said, ■ O Albert, Albert, my boy, 
haven't you given your heart to the Saviour yet ? 
What is the matter ? Why don't you throw every 
thing else away and trust only in the Lord Jesus ? 
The young man answered that he was trying to do 
that, but could not find any peace. We all knelt down 
in the little shanty which barely held us, and the chap- 
lain led in prayer. Then Uncle John said, ■ Now, 
Albert, you pray.' The lad offered a few simple, 
earnest petitions, and we left him. Several days after- 
ward I met him going to one of the meetings with a 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 89 

shining face. 'Well, Albert,' said I, 'how do you 
feel to-day?' 'Oh, bright as a shilling, chaplain,' 
was the singular but expressive reply. And bright 
ever since has been his Christian character and course. 
" His fidelity is unsparing. ' Uncle John/ said 
one captain, ' I try to do my duty, and I think that is 
all that is required of me.' ' Why, captain,' answered 
the honest man, in tones of astonishment, ' how can 
you say so ? No man does his duty who does not give 
his heart to God, and live in God's service. What 
would you think of a man brought up by a kind 
father, and provided by him with every means of hap- 
piness, who should be a good brother and husband 
and neighbor and citizen, and yet be a heartless and 
undutiful son ? Don't you think his wickedness would 
be unspeakably great ? ' ' But the cases are different,' 
rejoined the captain. ' No, they are not,' said Uncle 
John. ' That man would be condemned by the moral 
sense of the community ; and the godless sinner, you 
may depend upon it, will be condemned by the public 
opinion of the universe.' 

" Nearly one hundred and fifty — one tenth- of our 
whole brigade— professed faith in Christ during these 
services thus carried on. Many are in soldiers' graves, 
some are at home sick or wounded, some are in South- 
ern prisons, but so far as I know the great majority 
have shown that their profession was well founded." 

Rev. J. H. Twitchell, of the Asylum Hill Congre- 
gational Church, Hartford, Conn., who as chaplain was 
also thrown into such contact with him in the army, in 

8* 



9 o UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

a sermon to his people after the death of Uncle John 
recalls many interesting incidents. We can quote but 
a few. 

" One evening a fellow-chaplain brought him to my 
tent. We had not met before. At once he burst out 
in such a strain of religious conversation as I had 
never heard. At first I was repelled. It seemed cant- 
ing and extravagant. I could not believe it was genu- 
ine. But that suspicion did not last long. I soon saw 
that what he said, and his way of saying it, was the true 
utterance of the man. I cannot altogether describe 
the impression he made. I know that when he left I 
followed him out and yielded to the impulse that was 
strongly upon me to tell him I feared I knew but very 
little of what it was to be spiritually blessed, and to 
ask him to pray for me. His riches convicted me 
of poverty. And I have heard a good many say that 
meeting him produced a like effect on them. There 
was a Unitarian chaplain amongst us who confessed 
that Mr. Vassar was a new exhibition of Christianity to 
him. 

"In a merely physical point of view his achieve- 
ment was prodigious. He began his day at roll-call, 
and was in a state of intense activity from sixteen to 
eighteen hours. He ate little, and slept little, yet 
never flagged, and never gave out. Week after week, 
and seven days in the week, the same even high rate 
of energy was sustained. I suppose there were very 
few of the eight thousand officers and men of our di- 
vision with whom in the time he was with us he did 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 91 

not talk, and with the majority of them more than once 
or twice. I used to see him running in his eagerness 
to get about. Yet he was as far as possible from being 
in a flurry. His restlessness was wholly external. 
He always knew exactly what he was after. His ob- 
jects were distinctly before him. 

" Conversing with from seventy-five to a hundred 
different men a day, he came to the fiftieth or sixtieth 
just as fresh in his manner, just as much interested, 
just as tender, as at the first. He wasted no words. 
He went right to the heart of his errand at once, and 
his bearing was such that it was hardly possible to take 
offence. Indeed it was said, and I think truly, that in 
the entire division he never met with but one positive 
rebuff, and that in the case of an officer in liquor. 
And the reason was, he was entirely self- renounced, and 
showed it. He represented the yearning heart of Christ. 
It was almost magical the power he had over men. One 
of our chaplains, taking him to dine with him one day, 
found no member of his mess present beside himself 
but the colonel. Now this colonel was irreligious, 
immoral and low-bred, and the chaplain feared to 
have Mr. Vassar say any thing to him, and I think had 
advised him to that effect. For a little while the earn- 
est man held his peace ; then pausing from his eating, 
said, ' My dear colonel, this is the first time I ever saw 
you, and perhaps we shall never meet again. I am 
sure you will not think it amiss if I ask you whether 
you have an interest in the great salvation ? ' The 
chaplain's heart leaped up into his mouth. He ex- 



92 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

pected an explosion ; but to his surprise the colonel 
answered the question as simply as it was asked, and 
with entire civility, and eyen thanked him for express- 
ing such interest in his welfare. Dinner over, the 
colonel said, ' Sir, would you like to talk to the men ? ' 
Of course Uncle John said Yes, and the colonel abso- 
lutely spent half the afternoon in walking with him 
through the regiment, and introducing him to knots of 
soldiers here and there, with, * Here's a gentleman who 
has something to say to you, and you had better listen 
to him, for I think he is a good man. ' The chaplain 
followed them around in amazement, and could scarce- 
ly credit his senses. The colonel was not converted, 
but for the time he was subdued. 

" And so he passed around among us for a whole 
season, uttering one voice continually — the voice of the 
invitations of divine love. It used to be said that he 
left the print of his knees in every company street of 
our division. If this was not literally true it was essen- 
tially so. 

" Such a ministry could not fail to be fruitful. 
Upon hundreds, probably upon thousands, of men he 
made his mark for eternity. Dear old man ! How he 
loved, and how he was loved for Christ's sake ! There 
were joy and sorrow in all hearts when he parted from 
us. And when, as we were met together in our log 
chapel the evening after he bade us good-by, one of 
our soldiers — a Methodist — prayed in stentorian tones, 
' O Lord, we thank Thee for sending dear Uncle John 
Vassar to us, and may God bless him wherever he goes, ' 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 93 

a chorus of amens responded, and I saw the tears fall- 
ing on many a rugged cheek. It is my conviction that 
few more gracious spirits have been given to the 
church of Christ in any age than he. The last day 
alone will reveal how much good he did." 

Professor G. D. B. Pepper, D.D., of Crozier Theo- 
logical Seminary, sends these reminiscences of war 
days : 

" I met your uncle for the first time at Alexandria, 
Va., in the winter of 1863-64. I had gone there to 
serve the Christian commission as delegate for the term 
of six weeks, and to their headquarters Uncle John 
delighted as often as practicable to resort for Christian 
fellowship. We saw him, however, far less frequently 
than we desired, for he was incessantly and intensely 
active wherever soldiers could be found. At the ' Sol- 
dier's Rest,' the 'Teamster's Park,' the 'Ambulance 
Stand,' the 'Slave Pen,' 'Detached Regiments,' 
' Garrisons of Neighboring Forts ' — anywhere, every- 
where, untiringly he went. Though laboring specially 
for the Tract Society, he worked as cordially with the 
delegates of the Commission as though he had been 
one of them. Indeed, so full was he of Christ that he 
became at once identified with every Christian spirit 
met by him, and identified with all and every Christian 
work. Firm in avowing and maintaining his distinctive 
denominational views when occasion required, neither 
these views nor their maintenance served as a wall or 
even bar of separation from any person or thing that 
was lovely and of good report. He was as intensely 



94 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

and completely catholic in heart and word and life, as 
he was intensely earnest in his convictrons and their 
realizations. 

' ' More than any other man whom I ever met, or ever 
expect to meet, Uncle John excelled in the power of 
free, ready, wise approach to, and entrance into, the 
hearts of men with personal religious messages. Herein 
he was no respecter of persons. Professor or non-pro- 
fessor, privates or officers, black or white, it mattered 
not to him. Enough that all were men, and his Mas- 
ter was the Master of all, and had sent him, John Vas- 
sar, as His servant and representative to all. Not only 
was he not a respecter of men, but just as little was he 
a respecter of times, places, or occasions, save to ob- 
serve those proprieties which few better understood. 
But he held that all times, and all places, and all occa- 
sions were the Lord's, not less than all men, and it was 
never in his purpose or practice to yield God's claims 
to the claims of men or devils. 

" Yet I never knew that he gave to any man offence 
by this forwardness. He had such self-revealing, 
overflowing, outgushing, all-conquering good-will and 
Christian love, such natural freedom, heartiness, and 
geniality, all elevated and glorified by his deep Chris- 
tian experience, and also so much of childlike sim- 
plicity along with the wise tact and address perfected 
by years of incessant labor, that he would have been a 
Strange man indeed who would not have opened all the 
doors of his heart to Uncle John, and told the dear old 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 95 

saint to make himself perfectly at home, and do and 
say just what he pleased. 

" But while all recognized in him a true friend, no 
one could ever make him a mere ' hail fellow, well 
met.' His dealings were always in the clear view of a 
hastening eternity and its tremendous realities. Here- 
in he was a pattern to all chaplains, but certainly not 
a pattern after all. 

" I have a vivid remembrance of one night's ex- 
perience with him in a revival meeting at the quar- 
ters of 'The Fourteenth Delaware/ but rather 
on my own account than on his. He had for seve- 
ral nights taken long walks out from the city to aid 
the chaplain, and had expressed the special desire for 
me to go with him some evening. I complied with the 
request at the first opportunity. The meeting tent was 
crowded. The opening hymn was rung out with 
mighty power — of lungs at least. Uncle. John then in- 
troduced me to lead in prayer. I thought to lead, but 
soon found a multitude praying thunderously, each his 
own separate prayer. Of course I observed, not en- 
joyed, a short season of private devotion, whose end 
was as unnoticed by the crowd as had been its continu- 
ance. Uncle John was busy with inquirers amid this 
tempest of vociferous exercises. It was nothing to 
him what form expression took, if he could only find 
sinners seeking a Saviour, or any one needing advice 
or encouragement. Of course I was a spectator un- 
able to adjust myself to the turmoil. At length in 
the midst of the meeting my dear old friend came 



96 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

round to me and said, ' Come, Brother Pepper, come 
up here in front ; there's a little lull in the meeting 
now, and I want you to speak to the boys. ' ' All 
right,' I said, and went with him. He shouted to 
them a kindly introduction of me, and asked them to 
listen to his friend whom he had brought along. But 
even then there was only ' a little lull ' in the storm. 
I stood for half a minute looking at my audience — 
ah, not audience — awaiting silence, when a towering 
shouter just in front, with evident disgust at this tri- 
fling, this waste of holy time, at once burst into a yell 
of petition, adoration, or something else, and I in dis- 
honor fled to a corner of the tent. 

" In such a scene, or any other, that burning spirit 
wrought on doing the ' one thing ' needful. Blessed 
is he. Blessed is his memory. " 

Among the Christian officers who greatly helped 
him, and whom he regarded as a brother in the Lord, 
was General McAllister, of whom he makes frequent 
mention in his correspondence and reports. 

This testimony General McAllister now sends con- 
cerning him : 

'■' He was a man for whom I had the highest es- 
teem and the sincerest affection ; so I gladly send this 
slight tribute to his worth. 

" He was constantly going from regiment to regi- 
ment, from tent to tent, relieving both the temporal 
and spiritual wants of the soldiers. When he had been 
absent for a time and returned, there was great rejoic- 
ing among officers and men that Uncle John was back. 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 97 

" Upon applying at headquarters for permission to 
hold meetings, the answer always was, ' Go ahead. 
We know you are all right. ' 

" In his frequent visits to my tent we had many 
pleasant conversations about the war and the religious 
condition of the army, and the intense patriot, as well 
as intense Christian, shone out in them all. 

" It was his custom before leaving always to pray 
with us, and in his prayer each individual present was 
mentioned. One of my officers who was frequently 
with us said, ' I can stand up under any man's pray- 
ers but Uncle John Vassar's.' 

" During the winter of 1863-64 there was a great 
revival, and especially in the Third Corps. Meetings 
were held nightly, and thousands were converted. 
Often, not knowing that Uncle John was present, I 
would be surprised to hear his voice from the rear of 
the chapel in exhortation. Perhaps that would be the 
sixth meeting that he had attended that evening.'' 

His good friend, Colonel A. B. Smith, of Pough- 
keepsie, then Major of the 150th New York, furnishes 
this sketch : 

11 We were visited by Uncle John several times, 
and he was always welcome to a part of my tent. He 
was unremitting in ministering to the sick and disabled. 
I knew him once to carry a box as large as a good-sized 
trunk nearly three miles on his back, filled with delica- 
cies for our sick and suffering men. He was ubiquitous 
in the army. Came often, and always left his mark for 
the Master on every one he met. He waited for no 

John E. Vassar. 9 



98 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

formalities. His first remark would be, ' I hope this 
loyal blue covers a heart loyal to the Lord Jesus. He 
is the best friend a soldier can have. Tell me, is he 
your friend ? Come over to the prayer-meeting to- 
night.' 

" On Sunday, the 9th day of August, 1863, we were 
at Kelly's Ford, and Uncle John came to us and 
said, ' Shall we not have a little prayer-meeting to- 
night about sundown between the 150th New York and 
13th New Jersey regiments ? ' It was agreed upon. He 
was the only man in citizen's clothes in all the Twelfth 
Corps. All our chaplains were away sick or in hos- 
pitals, and a hundred or two gathered at the appointed 
time. We sat around or kneeled upon the ground, and 
Uncle John prayed as he only could pray. The meet- 
ing was going pleasantly on when a soldier from Gen- 
eral Ruger's headquarters stepped into the circle, and 
touching Uncle John, said, ' The general wants you.* 
Not the least confused, he said, ' Boys, go right on ; 
the general wants to see me,' and he marched at the 
side of the soldier a prisoner over to the headquarters 
of the brigade twenty rods or more away. He was 
there accosted with the rough inquiry, ' Who are you, 
and what are you here for ? You are not the chaplain 
of either of those regiments. We shot a man as a spy 
who came into our camp as you have come to-day. 
By whose authority are you here ? ' ' Oh, I know the 
whole of the 150th Regiment,' said Uncle John. 'I 
am an agent of the American Tract Society, and have 
a pass through the whole army of the Potomac from 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 99 

General Patrick and President Lincoln. And now, 
General, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ ? We can 
have a little season of prayer right here. ' ' No, no, ' 
said General Ruger. ' Here, orderly, take this man 
back, and I will see Colonel Ketcham about him. ' So 
Uncle John was back before the meeting ended, and it 
proved one of the best meetings I ever attended in the 
army. 

"On the resignation of our chaplain, Rev. T. E. 
Vassar, his Uncle John was unanimously elected to fill 
the vacancy. Army regulations, however, required 
that a chaplain should be an ordained minister, which 
he was not. A strong letter from the officers of the 
regiment was sent to his church at Poughkeepsie, urging 
them to call a council for uncle John's ordination, he 
having been licensed as a preacher some time before. 
He went home to take counsel touching the step, and 
found his church fully ready to proceed. Some out- 
side parties, however — and some who ought to have 
been the last to whisper it — hinted to him that he was 
looking to the chaplaincy from sordid motives, the de- 
sire for paltry pelf. That settled the question. Of all 
men he was the last to deserve a thrust like that. If 
ever there lived an utterly unselfish soul it was he. 
But he would not put himself where his influence 
might be injured by such an imputation. Back he 
went to his old work at twenty-five dollars a month, 
instead of a chaplain's hundred and twenty-five, 
the same loving, busy, devoted soul that he was be- 
fore. Our Twelfth Corps was then sent to the West 



ioo UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

and South-west to follow Sherman to the sea, and we 
never had Uncle John with us again. He sent us, 
however, occasional letters still, and among those who 
survive and remember those days his memory is sweet. 

"I have known the man since 185 1, and only to 
love and almost adore him as the most perfect exem- 
plifier of Christ whom I ever knew. He was one of 
God's own noblemen. Disciplined, tried, purified, he 
shone like burnished gold. Often I heard unbelieving 
officers say that if they could have a religion such as 
his they would prize it above all price. What he suf- 
fered and endured in serving Christ and his fellow-men, 
and what the grand results, the eternal day must be 
left to tell." 

Rev. E. Owen, of Wyoming County, N. Y., has 
something to give us concerning these same years. ' ' My 
first acquaintance with him was at Alexandria, Va., 
during the war, where I was then engaged as Superin- 
tendent of the Freedmen's Bureau. It was the day 
after I received the intelligence that my son had 
been killed in the army. Feeling the need of a human 
sympathizer, after pouring out my grief to the Friend 
above, I went in the suburbs to look him up. His 
heart, like mine, was bleeding, for he had just heard of 
the loss of a dear Christian nephew, a staff officer of 
Banks', in Texas, who had recently been drowned.* 
Common grief cemented our hearts from that very 
hour. 

* Lieutenant A. H. Vassar, of the Thirteenth Regiment, Corps 
d'Afrique, drowned on duty near Point Isabel, February 6th, 1864. 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 101 

4 ' After that, as he passed back and forth In his 
work, we were glad to have him drop in for a few min- 
utes at our home, or spend occasionally a night. 
Those were precious hours. There would be intervals 
during which he would wake from sleep for a few min- 
utes, and the first conscious breath would be prayer 
and praise. Soon as ever the day dawned we would hear 
him say, ' Come, brethren, let us be up and about the 
Master's work. ' In connection with no life have I been 
so deeply impressed with the truth of that expression, 
4 Pray-er is the Christian's vital breath.' 

He seemed greatly to enjoy the social hour, but if 
conversation was leading off the track, he would ex- 
claim, ' Brethren, we must keep praying,' and forth- 
with drop down upon his knees, and draw all wander- 
ing thoughts back to God and duty at the mercy seat. 
One remarkable feature of his prayers, and which, 
apart from their special unction, made them so inter- 
esting, was the fact that he remembered the names 
and condition of those whom he had met, and formed 
them into petitions so forcible and appropriate as to 
give his supplications a freshness and variety seldom 
witnessed, and to fasten them as a nail in a sure place 
to produce effects likely to be lasting. 

" After taking his long and weary tramps from 
regiment to regiment, literally loaded with books, 
tracts, papers, and other necessaries for the soldiers, 
he would sometimes return with his shoe-soles worn 
through to the very feet, but he scorned to rest while 
the neccessities of the times were so great." 

9* 



102 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

But it is time we let the intrepid toiler tell us a 
little concerning his work, and tell it in his own words. 
There are letters and reports in his handwriting which 
would fill a volume such as this touching the labors 
of these days. 

When in the autumn of 1863 the advance on the 
Rapidan was made, he says : 

" We followed the poor boys out part of the way 
to the Rappahannock, and as they cried, ' Good-by, 
Uncle John,' the big tears rolled down many of their 
cheeks. We felt deeply for them, and soon the roar 
of cannon told us they had met the enemy in mortal 
combat. In the morning ambulances of wounded men 
came in calling for food and nursing. We joined the 
Christian Commission in its labor of love for two days, 
and passed through many affecting scenes." 

A month later he is back at Alexandria in the 
" Soldiers' Rest," and thence he writes : "I have 
helped in two meetings a night for some time. The 
attendance is large, and many are serious, while a few 
have confessed Christ." 

Here he meets the venerable Jeremiah H. Taylor, 
of Connecticut, a brother of James Brainerd Taylor, of 
saintly memory, a man who as this sentence is flowing 
from the pen is entering on his eighty-third year, but 
was then laboring for the bodies and souls of the 
soldiers with great diligence and success. These mis- 
sionaries, thus brought together, were true yoke-fel- 
lows, and when the younger entered upon rest the 
elder toiler traced with trembling hand this testimony 
to his departed friend. 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 103 

" It was my blessed privilege to be a fellow-laborer 
with this dear brother in the war. I never saw one on 
whose tongue the precious name of Jesus dwelt so 
much. It was the key-note to every utterance, it was 
the mainspring of all toil. How he unites now in that 
anthem of Paradise ' unto Him who loved us !' ' 

Hear the toiler again : ' ' Last evening we heard from 
several converts in Battery H. It was worth all my labor 
here to listen to the story of what grace had done for 
them. At the Soldiers' Rest one fine young man cried 
out, ' O that God would have mercy on me. My 
mother died but a few days since, and begged me to 
meet her in heaven.' Another told me that he had 
left home to get rid of his mother's entreaties and 
prayers, but the Spirit had followed him and rung 
them in his ears. He has had a hard struggle, but 
I believe has submitted his heart to Christ." 

Later in the winter he is down among the huts and 
tents of the Third Army Corps. 

Rejoicingly he reports to the rooms in New York 
marvels of saving grace. " I have never seen such a 
work since coming out. There are crowded meetings 
every night. Christians are all aroused. Converts 
are being multipled. . In the spring the entire com- 
mand will move, and many of these will go out to die 
on the bloody field." 

A chaplain at the same date writes to the Society : 

' We are greatly indebted to you for sending Uncle 

John here. We wish he could have remained all winter. 

When he bade us good-by it was with prayers and 



io 4 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR, 

tears that reminded me of the elders parting with Paul 
at Miletus. He went away with his knees all ragged, 
like a scarred veteran." 

He runs home for a few days, and on getting 
back to Washington finds that he cannot get at once 
inside our lines on account of some new orders which 
have just been given. No time must be lost, so he 
goes to work among the troops around the capital. 
We can imagine how he would enjoy a service such as 
this : " Sunday afternoon General Briggs, who has 
charge of all volunteers passing through here to the 
front, went with me to a meeting in a Pennsylvania 
regiment, where we had present a thousand officers 
and men. I wish you could have seen the General as 
he faced these men, and heard the words he pressed 
upon their hearts. I have not met such another Chris- 
tian officer excepting General McAllister. Old Mas- 
sachusetts may well be proud of such a son. He is a 
tower of strength to Christian laborers here. ' ' 

After the terrible battles in the "Wilderness" he 
got down to Fredericksburg, where the wounded had 
been brought in, and thence he writes : " I am sur- 
rounded by the dying and the dead. From morning 
to night, and often through the night, I am called to 
aid temporarily or spiritually those who are nearing 
eternity. I have not passed by the poor rebel sol- 
diers. Some of them were very grateful for little kind- 
nesses shown. 

" I have been detailed with several others to nurse 
and care for some five hundred of our wounded men. 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 105 

Many of them knew me, and a number, when under- 
going amputation, would beg me to come and stand by 
their sides. Thank God for our holy religion. In the 
midst of so much suffering I see some great triumphs 
of grace." 

Next he is with General Butler's army at Point of 
Rocks, ministering to those in the convalescent camps 
injured in the attack on Petersburg, and this is the 
story that he tells : " I cannot describe what my eyes 
have seen, my ears heard, and my heart felt these ten 
days past ; feeding men whose mouths have been 
torn by bullets, or whose throats so injured that they 
could hardly take nourishment sufficient to sustain 
life, distributing the stores of the Sanitary and Chris- 
tian Commissions, praying with the dying, relieving 
men who for six weeks have been over the suffering or 
burying the dead — this has been my work." 

From before Petersburg, where the Sanitary Com- 
mission finds in him a valued helper and puts large 
supplies at his disposal, he reports : " The firing is 
almost continuous along portions of our line. Many 
of the dear converts of last winter are falling, and are 
being laid to their long rest. One of them I had 
looked to as chosen of God for great good. Talented 
and generous, courageous, yet childlike, I have not 
often met his like. I saw him after he had fallen, the 
stars and stripes yet in his hands. His face was as 
radiant as when we last sang with him his favorite 
hymn, ' There is an hour of peaceful rest.' 

" Another dear spirit was cut down in a recent 



106 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

charge. I saw him after the amputation of his leg, and 
before he died. He seemed calm, cheerful, and full 
of delight in Christ. Speaking of his part in the en- 
gagement, he said, * I did all I could.' These and 
many others are buried close up to the enemy's lines, 
but the loving Jesus watches over them as though 
they slept in the old family burial ground. 

" One of the converts, after the explosion of the 
mine, came out badly hurt. He was placed among the 
wounded, and when I got there he lifted up the stump 
of a missing limb and cried, * Uncle John, I have lost 
my arm, but I have not lost my hold on Jesus.' " 

At City Point, amid the trenches, he was completely 
prostrated, and lay for days very ill. Ex-Mayor Fay, 
of Chelsea, Mass., took him to his tent and showed 
him such attention as a brother might. By Thanks- 
giving (1864) he is able to work again, and thus men- 
tions the observance of that day : " We had religious 
service in all the forts and trenches, and at the hospi- 
tals and headquarters. The turkeys and pies arrived. 
Many thanks to all who so remembered our brave 
men. 

" Several more good boys belonging to our Chris- 
tian brotherhood are gone. Sergeant L was 

brought in dead while I was standing in the fort. A 
ball passed through his body. He never even groaned. 

When they picked him up Chaplain H told him 

to look to Jesus. He looked up, and calmly said, 
' Jesus is with me now. God's will be done.' " 

On the first Sabbath in February, 1865, he writes 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 107 

from Patrick's Station :. " We had expected to dedicate 
several new log chapels and have some very interesting 
services to-day, but as we were getting ready the men 
were suddenly ordered to move to the left. For the 
last half hour the roar of cannon has been very hard. 
Some of the men who were so happy in our meeting 
last night, and who went out so cheerfully this morn- 
ing, have been brought in dead. My heart sickens as I 
look on the bloody ground and remember what sorrow 
will be brought to many a home by this day's fight." 

After the battle of Hatcher's Run comes this strik- 
ing incident: "At one of the recent meetings this 
fact came out. In the last move a Christian young 
man in the camp was detailed to remain behind for some 
service while an impenitent tent-mate was ordered on. 
Anxious for the yet unsaved comrade, and fearing that 
the engagement might be a serious one, the pious sol- 
dier offered to change places with his chum, saying 
frankly that he believed he was prepared for whatever 
might come. The offer was accepted, and in the 
bloody battle that followed the friend who went was 
three times hit, but not seriously hurt. The impression 
made on the other soul was so deep as to send him at 
once to Christ." 

Another, then a chaplain, Rev. L. R. Janes, now 
of Jefferson County, Tennessee, thus witnesses of 
Uncle John's services in the camp : 

" I first met him in a field hospital at City Point, 
Virginia, and must confess that I did not immediately 
understand the man. I saw at once that he was a de- 



108 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

cided character, and very quickly discovered that he 
was all on fire with love to Jesus and his fellow-men. 

" Learning of my position, he sought to secure my 
co-operation in a plan of work embracing the entire 
brigade. I entered into the arrangement, though with 
little of his faith. Wickedness was peculiarly rife, 
drinking, gambling, and the like prevailing all along the 
line. He knew that well, but he walked not by sight. 

" Through the Christian Commission he secured for 
our use a chapel tent, nightly services were com- 
menced, and for several weeks, until the army moved, 
a glorious and sweeping revival was enjoyed. Brother 
Vassar was very modest through it all. Although the 
prime mover, he invariably sought to bring the regular 
chaplains to the front, so that the most scrupulous 
sticklers for propriety could not have complained. 

" Of course the worldly minded could not appreci- 
ate his consecration. Jome of them insisted that the 
good man was partly crazed. My colonel was quite 
reluctant on this account to have him come before our 
regiment. It was not long, however, before he 
changed his mind. While lying in a hospital wound- 
ed, Brother Vassar called on him, and so won him over 
that, on returning to his command, he said, ' Uncle 
John's about right after all.' " 

Sunday morning, April 1st, 1865, was what might 
be properly called the last Sabbath of the war. Of 
that day, and those immediately following, let us hear 
what he has to say. 

" Sunday morning dawned on a field of strife and 



GOING TO THE FRONT. 109 

blood and death. Such a Sabbath I had not in all my 
army experience seen. For three miles I passed along 
the lines amid roaring cannon and bursting shells, where 
the ' gray ' and the ' blue ' often lay close together, 
mingling their life-blood and dying groans. We little 
realized in the confusion and horror of that day that 
the God of our fathers was using our men to strike 
the blows which should bring the long conflict to an 
end. 

44 Monday morning found our great army in pur- 
suit of Lee and his troubled host. We followed with 
out sanitary wagons until we reached Burkesville. By 
that time so many had been wounded that the sur- 
geons decided to establish a hospital there. In that I 
have busied myself for days. As we moved along the 
roads the colored people flocked out to see the 
1 Yankees/ as they called us, and in many queer ways 
they expressed their joy. One shouted, ' Ole Vir- 
ginny neber tire, but now she tire. * 

44 Now we have the glorious news that General Lee 
has surrendered. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Many 
of our poor wounded boys have almost forgotten their 
sufferings in their joy over the report." 

Immediately on the occupation of Richmond the 
Tract Society sent Rev. G. L. Shearer there to take 
charge of its work in Virginia, and for some months 
Uncle John was his efficient ally in trying to repair, 
morally and religiously at least, the ravages of war. 
To a later chapter these labors properly belong. 

His army work was done. He had lived to see an 

John E. Vassar. 1° 



no UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

honorable peace shed its light on the banner of stars. 
He had lived to see the monstrous evil, which had 
been his abhorrence always, and which had lain at the 
bottom of the struggle, not only shattered, but torn 
up root and branch. He saw guns stacked and 
swords sheathed, and battle-flags bullet-rent and pow- 
der-blackened hung up for a later generation's wonder- 
ing eyes. He saw the white tents folded, the wards 
of suffering empty, and the lines of blue-coats melt 
noiselessly away. And nobody rejoiced more than he 
that the red river of blood had ceased to flow, that 
no more harvests would be trampled down, no more 
beds littered with the worn or maimed, no more 
households darkened and shivered, no more graves 
opened and filled. And yet with something like a 
pang, too, he saw the old regiments mustered out. A 
thousand memories, some bitter, some bright, linked 
him and them— with whom he had tramped and camp- 
ed and messed and bunked, and suffered and prayed 
and praised. Long isolation from home had drawn 
their hearts together. From the fierce charge he had 
brought some back bleeding, and bound up their 
wounds. In the fever ward, where they had tossed and 
moaned, he had come to others and watched with the 
tenderness of a woman's love. With hundreds he had 
plead and wrestled when as penitent sinners they were 
looking and longing for the light, and rejoiced with 
them when as converts they saw the new and living 
way by which a contrite soul returns to God. With 
older believers there had been seasons of blessed 



GOING TO THE FRONT. in 

times when the fellowship of kindred 
minds had indeed been "like to that above/' And 
beside the living there were the dead who had been 
left lying all along the line of march. Hours very 
sweet and precious he had spent with some of them. 
For a few he had even dug a grave, and wrapping their 
blankets around them, had lowered them into it, telling 
those helping meanwhile of that Christ Jesus who is 
the Redeemer and the Resurrection. 

What wonder, if with devout gladness, and yet a 
trace of sadness, he saw this work end ! 

The results of these years it would be impossible to 
compute or calculate. We believe it perfectly safe to 
say that no single man ever performed in like space 
more personal labor, or amid like surroundings ever 
made a deeper or better mark on men. 

For any thing more definite we must wait the dis- 
closures of that all-judging day, whose reckonings will 
be correct. 



ii2 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 



CHAPTER VII. 

NEW CAMPAIGNS. 

" Where our Captain bids us go, 
'Tis not ours to murmur No ; 
He that gives the sword and shield 
Chooses too the battle field. ' ' 

THE armies of the nation vanished as suddenly as 
they emerged, leaving but " the blessed memory of the 
rights they vindicated, and the honorable scars of the 
wrongs which they redressed." Chaplains who had 
been granted leave of absence from their flocks went 
back to lead them as aforetime through the green pas- 
tures and beside the still waters of Gospel peace. 
Uncle John did not follow the disbanding regiments 
northward. He saw a new field for operations opening 
in the States which war had stripped and torn and 
gashed. To enter it would require great tact and 
grace. Sectional animosities could hardly fail to be en- 
gendered during a four years' struggle, costing the 
lives of half a million men — animosities lasting and 
bitter and deep. This incident, given by Rev. G. S. 
Mott, D.D., of Flemington, N. J., would probably be 
a fair illustration of the temper of those times : 

" Soon after hostilities ceased, Uncle John was 
sent by the Tract Society into a certain section of 
Virginia to ascertain what the public feeling was 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 113 

with reference to the Society and its work. Among 
those called upon was a prominent Presbyterian clergy- 
man, whom he met on entering the yard, or at the 
gate. On making known his errand the minister re- 
plied, ' Do you know what is in my heart ? ' 'Of 
course not,' said Uncle John, ' but I hope it is good.' 
' Not at all,' was the reply. ' My feeling is to kill 
you. I hope God gives me grace to prevent me 
from carrying that feeling out, but now you know just 
how I feel toward the North.' 

" Before the interview ended the angry preacher 
was thoroughly melted down, but the wrathful and 
vindictive spirit with which he greeted a brother 
Christian was a sample of the disposition dominant in 
those days." To overcome it would require calmness, 
readiness, self-control, and in a sevenfold degree that 
charity which suffereth long and is kind. 

Those who did not know the man whom we are 
tracing may think it almost incredible that he should 
have possessed these qualities. To them he has been 
represented as an excitable, impulsive, emotional en- 
thusiast, rushing hither and thither all aflame ; and 
they cannot understand how such a character could 
ever have been a peacemaker, how such a zealot 
could have poured oil on troubled waters, how one so 
positive and even turbulent could have dealt effect- 
ively with fractious tempers and stubborn wills. We 
may not pause here to harmonize these apparent in- 
compatibilities. The two sides of an arch toward the 
base seem opposing columns, but up above they lock 

10* 



U4 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

together, forming one perfect whole. Human nature 
often wraps up what looks like incongruities, but sym- 
metry is the outcome still. Certain it is that John 
Vassar was the very incarnation of fervor ; it is just as 
certain that under the sorest provocations he with per- 
fect patience possessed his soul. 

As was intimated in the last chapter, the Tract 
Society opened a depot for its publications in Rich- 
mond in May of 1865. Rev. Geo. L. Shearer, as Dis- 
trict Secretary, was put in charge. Uncle John was 
to push out as opportunity might offer, organizing 
Sunday-schools, establishing meetings, and circulating 
religious reading matter to such an extent as the 
Society might be able to provide. 

Secretary Shearer gives this idea of the demand : 
All the churches are exceedingly destitute of any 
thing like religious literature. Their denominational 
publishing houses were consumed in the late fire. Sab- 
bath-schools shared their libraries with the soldiers, 
and the usual wear for four years leaves little stock on 
hand. Seventy thousand dollars' worth of publications 
could be judiciously distributed on this field, and the 
need of colporteur labor from house to house is great." 

Dr. J. M. Stevenson, who had been instructed by 
the Committee of the Society to make an exploring 
tour of the South in the early summer, gives these im- 
pressions through the columns of the Messenger. 
" There are yet difficulties in the way of a cordial in- 
tercourse with the people, and many still refuse fra- 
ternal greetings, but the better minds and hearts are 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 115 

flowing together. There are more than a million of 
whites and blacks in Eastern Virginia living on planta- 
tions, and these, if reached at all by the Gospel, must 
be reached by colportage for some time to come. In 
many places they have no money. One man said to 
me, ' I have not had half a dollar for two months. ' An 
able and honored professor in college has sold his fur- 
niture piecemeal to get bread. Many once wealthy are 
pensioners upon the Government. Three thousand 
colored children are in the freedmen's schools at Rich- 
mond, and perhaps four thousand in Sabbath-schools." 

These glimpses of the condition of things will show 
us what was now to be Uncle John's work for a sea- 
son ; what was to be the character of his new cam- 
paigns. 

His first communication opens thus : " Reached 
Richmond Saturday, and the next day went into Dr. 
Jeter's Sabbath-school, where the reception was warm 
and kind. Afternoon went among the colored people, 
and got a cordial welcome. Evening had a good meet- 
ing among the soldiers yet remaining here. The next 
Sabbath went down to Petersburg, and there heaven 
was brought nearer to me than for weeks before. The 
remembrance of the days when we lay in the trenches 
here, and of the prayers .that went up from lips now 
still in death, stirred me up to magnify the Lord. I 
spoke to a large gathering of colored people, and many 
hearts seemed touched. Eight asked prayers, and I 
felt that a work of grace had begun with many more. 

" In the First African Church, Richmond, we had 



n6 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

another precious and powerful meeting. More than 
thirty were greatly troubled, and some wept aloud. A 
great awakening, I believe, is near. Oh, for youthful 
strength and heavenly grace to labor for my dearest 
Lord." 

The prediction was quickly verified. This First 
African Church, which had been for years the rendez- 
vous or headquarters of the colored Baptists of the city, 
and had a membership of over three thousand, was visit- 
ed by a most remarkable outpouring of saving grace. 
At its height the body of the house was mainly filled 
with inquiring souls, and frequently its nearly twenty- 
five hundred sittings were all occupied before the ex- 
ercises of the hour began. While the interest prevail- 
ed Uncle John met the members for prayer at day- 
break. Till noon he visited and prayed in their fami- 
lies. At twelve he went into the colored schools and 
spent an hour with those who were specially concern- 
ed. At four o'clock he met inquirers along with the 
pastor. At seven o'clock he addressed the crowds 
that assembled from night to night. Nearly five hun- 
dred were added to this single church. 

From Richmond he pushed out into the country 
around, Danville, Lynchburg, and other large places 
engaging him for a few days each. In the midsummer 
of 1865 he was travelling southward in the State, and 
stopping at a station on the railroad, learned that in 
some coal mines near there were large companies of 
freedmen who had no school, and for whom no one 
seemed to care. Such a statement was enough to in- 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 117 

terest him in their behalf. He found a planter three 
miles away who agreed to superintend a Sabbath- 
school. A little further searching, and a building was 
obtained in which to meet. Notice was circulated as 
widely as possible, and the next Lord's Day a hundred 
came together to be taught. He scattered among 
these spellers and primers, and put up a card large 
enough for all to see, from which he gave them their 
first lesson. So eagerly did the people avail them- 
selves of the help thus proffered that the school proved 
a marked success at once. Inspired by it, they even 
started a day-school, taught by one of their own race. 
Out of that soon came a church ; out of the teacher 
came a pastor, and on a subsequent visit Uncle John 
found a hundred converts ready to confess Christ. Is 
it surprising that he wrote, " I feel thankful that I was 
ever permitted to visit this place. I wish the friend 
that gave fifteen dollars to purchase the books that 
started that school could see it now, and into what it has 
grown. Surely he would praise God as we did yester- 
day. 

Hear him again report : " Last Sabbath I visited the 
country near Powhatan Court-House, and established a 
Sunday-school in the woods. A hundred of the young 
and old attended, some of whom came five miles. 
A number of planters were present, who admitted they 
had never seen persons more anxious to learn. A 
log-house for the school will at once be built. I can 
get up such schools every week if you can give the 
cards and books. We cannot ask the colored folks to 



n8 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

pay for them. They have all they can do to get bread. 
At Dover, where I established a school a few weeks 
ago, I stopped on my return. Some of the scholars 
ran to meet me, shouting, ' Uncle John, I have learned 
to read a heap since you were here. ' Better still, more 
than fifty have turned to Christ." 

As a slight rest from these exhausting labors, Uncle 
John several times came North, and in the larger 
towns of the Eastern and Middle States sought to raise 
funds for the Society wherewith to prosecute its 
Southern work. This was never, however, the service 
which he preferred, and perhaps it would be but the 
simple truth to say that it was not the service in which 
he specially excelled. He could sell books, and he 
could collect money. He did both. But he was not a 
great salesman, nor a remarkable financier. He had 
royal gifts, but they were of quite another sort. 
Sometimes one of his warm-hearted statements of 
Southern destitution would move many and secure a 
large contribution. This incident of the kind seems 
authentic : " In Northern New York a country Sun- 
day-school, after listening to his portrayal of the state 
of things in Virginia, and the demands of the hour, 
poured all their available funds into his handkerchief, 
class after class contributing till more than eighty dol- 
lars had been given." 

With the closing days of 1866 he gets over the line 
into North Carolina, where black and white alike give 
him the kindest of welcomes. On Christmas day he thus 
reports : " I have just returned from the Moravian set- 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. ti 9 

tlement at Salem. I made the journey of sixty miles 
on horseback, through more than fifty of which I did 
not see a single school-house. Bishop Bahnson and 
his brethren were very cordial. They are a grand mis- 
sionary church. Their mark can be seen in all that 
region. Numbers are coming to Jesus. Hundreds 
within a few weeks have made their peace with 
God." 

South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky he re- 
connoitres to see what prospects offer for educational 
and evangelistic work. He reports prejudices soften- 
ing everywhere, but sore poverty amounting often to 
absolute distress. In the latter State he makes the 
acquaintance of an earnest Christian woman, concern- 
ing whom he tells this story : "In 1863 one of 
Morgan's raiders was thrown from his horse near Lex- 
ington and mortally injured. He was taken to the 
house of this lady, who, while doing all she could to 
relieve his bodily suffering, labored assiduously for the 
salvation of his soul. After several days of keen dis- 
tress Christ was revealed, and peace came. Before he 
died his kind hostess promised that his body should be 
taken for burial to his Georgia home. At the close 
of the war she fulfilled her pledge, and laid him in a 
grave by his father's side. While on this errand she was 
touched by the extreme destitution prevailing in that 
portion of the State. Many were going literally hun- 
gry, and of the means of grace there was an utter lack. 
She sent back to her own neighborhood an appeal for 
food, and vast quantities of corn were gathered up and 



120 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

forwarded to her for the relief of their more pressing 
wants. While superintending the distribution of these 
supplies she organized among whites and blacks nine- 
teen Sunday-schools, and secured books and papers for 
their use. She now proposes to go into the mountain 
regions of her own State, where it is said that there are 
twelve thousand families without the Word of God, 
and make a similar effort. Who will help this self- 
sacrificing, heroic woman ?" 

What large results may be realized from small be- 
ginnings another letter of his, written about this time, 
tells. " In a neighborhood of Stafford County, Virginia, 
where there was no Sabbath-school when I first visited 
it, and where I could at that time get no one to engage 
in the enterprise, a 2ady tells me how God led her 
husband into the work. When he went home from 
our meeting he told her that he had lived fifty years 
without Jesus, but could do so no longer. He sent 
for a minister to come to his house and preach. The 
truth was blessed to his own salvation. Fifty others 
soon followed in his steps. A church was organized. 
A meeting-house holding two hundred has been built, 
and I remained and organized a Sunday-school in it, 
which will have a hundred children enrolled before the 
summer ends." 

Toward the autumn of 1868 he starts for Florida, 
and, while stopping at Savannah, he goes out to Be- 
thesda, where under the grand old oaks Whitefield so 
often preached, and where he established his Orphan's 
Home. We can easily imagine how his heart would 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 121 

be thrilled on such ground, and what prayers there 
burst from his lips. 

In Florida his good friend Dr. Bronson, of St. Au- 
gustine, formerly of New York, gives him a warm sup- 
port. Uncle John here finds experiences rather rougher 
in some respects than any encountered heretofore. 
Let him describe some of the difficulties met. " I 
have concluded that I was led here to learn the apos- 
tolic mode of evangelization. I cannot say with the 
apostle that ' a day and a night I have been in the 
deep,' but I can say that I have waded through the 
water for miles, and often knee-deep, to reach the 
scattered settlements. 

" Last week, with James Middleton, an old pioneer 
Methodist preacher, as guide, I attempted to reach St. 
John's County to establish a few schools. Sometimes 
for two miles at a stretch we went through water in the 
swamps and on the savannas from six inches to two 
feet deep. We kept up our courage, however, by sing- 
ing, 

' No foot of land do I possess, 
No cottage in the wilderness.' 

We made ten miles in five hours, and got to the 
end of our journey well soaked. Hozv delightful is this 
work for Jesus ! As I lay out all night last week I felt 
like praising Him aloud. Who would not gladly spare a 
few years out of heaven's bliss to gather jewels for the 
precious Saviour's crown ? ' If we suffer we shall also 
reign with Him.' Oh, that v/e all might know the 
meaning of these words." 

John E. Vas<ar. * * 



122 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

Stopping for a few hours with Dr. Bronson in his 
pleasant Southern home in the spring of 1870, we 
heard his testimony to the wonderful labors performed 
by Uncle John all up and down the St. John's, the 
heartiness with which the humbler classes welcomed 
him, and the blessings which everywhere crowned his 
toil. And at Green Cove Springs and Magnolia and 
Pilatka and Jacksonville black and white alike re- 
membered him, and warmed up at the mention of his 
name. 

In 1868 he spent some time in Central and West- 
ern New York, of which we get glimpses such as 
these : 

"There was a revival in the Brick Presbyterian 
Church of Rochester, and Uncle John, accompanied by 
one of the elders, went from house to house. 

" The elder felt quite nervous at the first for fear 
that something might be said or done which would be 
out of place or in bad taste. He was afraid that Uncle 
John, who was a plain man and fresh from army and 
freedmen's work, might be out of his element in mix- 
ing with a higher social class. But after the first two 
or three calls every fear of this sort was dissipated. 
He found Uncle John was equal to any place or class. 
He made no blunders, and was above and beyond criti- 
cism. To him it was a wonder that this man, untu- 
tored in social etiquette or conventionalities, struck so 
nearly right every time. Two or three things account- 
ed for it. He had naturally the instincts of a true 
gentleman. He was quick to read human nature, and 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 123 

he had a large amount of sanctified common-sense 
which never forsook him. 

" I once saw him ask a man if he loved Jesus. The 
man was a German, and could not understand a word 
said. Uncle John was not to be baffled by such a fact 
as this. He pointed with his finger upward, and with 
an expression on his face that spoke more than words, 
he caused his German friend to comprehend his mean- 
ing. 

" One day while in Rochester he happened to be 
in the store of one of our leading business men, and, as 
was his wont, took the opportunity to speak a word on 
the subject of religion with those who came in. Some 
were evidently surprised, but none seemed offended. 
After Uncle John went out, a railroad conductor came 
in, who was rough and sometimes violent, especially if 
his prejudices happened to be crossed. What had 
been going on in the store was causally mentioned, 
whereupon this conductor exclaimed, ' Well, neither he 
nor any other man would dare try that on me. If he 
did he would get a piece of my mind. 

" The very next day the two men chanced to meet 
there. Uncle John, all ignorant of what had been said, 
edged around to the conductor, and presently out came 
the inevitable question, ' My friend, may I ask if you 
love Jesus ? ' The proprietor of the store now expect- 
ed a scene. Instead of that the man only stammered 
out a few words of explanation or apology over the 
fact that he did not. When Uncle John left, the con- 
ductor asked, ' Who was that man ? ' The storekeeper 



i2 4 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

replied, ' Uncle John Vassar, the man I told you of 
yesterday.' ' Is it, indeed ? ' he said. ' Well, he is a 
good fellow any way." 

Now he goes to minister to still another class. In 
the summer of 1869 the Tract Society determined to 
put its system of colportage in operation along the 
Pacific Railroad, among the mining regions of the 
Rocky Mountains, and up and down the country's 
sunset slopes. Mr. Shearer, so long in charge of the 
Richmond agency, was intrusted with the work, and to 
his assistance he called the man who had shared with 
him other trusts and toils. 

In the cabins of Colorado miners we next find 
Uncle John. It's hard material that he here comes in 
contact with and seeks to mould for holiness and 
heaven. He takes in the situation at a glance, and 
says, " No man of weak faith and little love can succeed 
here. It will take a soul of the John Knox stamp to 
get hold of the men who venture here for silver and 
gold." But undaunted by what is unpromising, he 
strikes right in. Before he leaves, these adventurers 
and fortune-seekers are melted under the truth of God, 
as voiced by loving lips and energized by the Spirit's 
might. Hear him tell again the old story : " We had 
four meetings on Sunday, and I have not seen more 
tears shed for a long time. Strong men broke down 
as they were plead with, or while piayer was being 
offered in their behalf. A few very devout souls are to 
be found here, and I have enjoyed a rich feast of love 
with them." 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 125 

He finds a little English lad in the boarding house 
who has recently given his heart to Christ, and he sets 
him to work distributing religious reading, and begs 
the brethren at the rooms on Nassau Street to send the 
young disciple longing to be useful twenty copies of 
the Messenger monthly to circulate. 

At Virginia City, Sacramento, and at Stockton he 
labors for a few days with different pastors, and Mr. 
Shearer reports that this wayside sowing everywhere 
bears fruit. 

In the first-named town on Sunday afternoon he 
exhorted in front of a noted gambling saloon. " The 
attendance was large and the attention good. Some 
at the close returned to their games disappointed that 
with such a crowd there could not have been so much 
as a dog fight ; others wondered where the margin for 
profit could be, inasmuch as both the talking and the 
tracts were free ; but in many ears the familiar, yet 
long-forgotten, words of entreaty, invitation, and warn- 
ing came with an almost melting power." 

In San Francisco an agency of the Society is estab- 
lished, and some stirring meetings held there, as well 
as at Oakland and other towns in the interior, or up 
and down the coast. The Chinese, that now vexing 
factor in the national problem, were then beginning to 
crowd over to our Pacific slope, and they greatly inter- 
ested Uncle John. With one or two who had recently 
been converted he had protracted and pleasant inter- 
views, for every redeemed soul his heart went out to 
as a brother's, whatever the nationality or name. 



126 UXCLE JOIfX VASSAL. 

An influential pastor of the city, in communicating 
with the " Rooms,*' says : " The people arc greatly in 
love with Uncle John, and I do not wonder. Wher- 
ever he goes the Lord is sure to be with him, lie is 

now among Dr. Scudder's people, and the elders are 
going from house to house with him with tears." 

While in San Francisco friends plan for him a little 
trip for rest. They arrange that he shall visit the Yo- 
semite Valley, and see God's wonders in nature there. 
Always thinking of toil, and not of sight-seeing or ease, 
he doubts at first whether it will be right for him to 
go ; whether it will not be misappropriating time — time 
which should be given to saving souls. His scruples 
finally are overcome, and with congenial companions he 
spends a week surrounded by what is stupendous and 
sublime. Mere recreation, however, by no means en- 
grosses his time or thought. All the grandeur and 
beauty that meet his eyes area mirror glassing the per- 
fections of their Author, and his Father and Friend. 
All the while he is breaking forth in praise. When the 
Sabbath comes he and his brethren worship with a 
group of Digger Indians gathered around and looking 
curiously on. Oh, how Uncle John yearns for the 
ability to tell these degraded specimens of human 
kind of Jesus and His love ! If he could have seen one 
of these stupid imbruted savages accepting Christ it 
would have delighted him more than the glories of 
towering cliffs and plunging cataracts. All he could 
do toward reaching them, however, was to pray God to 
speak to them by a tongue that they could understand. 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 127 

On this Western trip he makes a brief halt at Salt 
City, of which we have no record, but another 
Christian laborer subsequently appointed to that hard 
field found traces of his fidelity, evidences that he vig- 
orously tilled a bit of that stubborn soil, and that the 
effort was not altogether vain. 

Florida now claims him again for the winter. And 
the next summer Kansas is stirred by him as he pushes 
from city to city, and from town to town, seeking to 
interest Christian women especially and get them to 
organize local societies for the visitation of families 
and the distribution of tracts and books. A regular 
system is in many places introduced. The larger cen- 
tres of population are districted, and delegates found 
for each section or street. Stated meetings are ar- 
ranged for, with reports. 

These in brief were the engagements and undertak- 
ings of what we have called his new campaigns. The 
freedmen, the poor whites of the South, the miners of 
Nevada and Colorado and California, the Mormons of 
Utah, the new settlers on the plains of Kansas and 
along her streams, the hardy mountaineers of Kentucky 
and East Tennessee — all were plied with whatsoever 
Gospel truth could awe or win, attract or alarm, and 
upborne on the strong arms of wrestling prayer. 

The variety of incident entering into years of such 
service eventually becomes thin and dreamy. It fades 
out of sight as the shore does to the receding voyager. 
Standing on the vessel's deck as it leaves port, the 
passenger sees object after object disappear, till finally 



128 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

even high-topped hills and the light-house on the rock 
are no longer visible. Time and its experiences so sink 
away. Occurrences which impressed us deeply at the 
first cease to be remembered as we travel on and they 
are left further off. If a tithe of what Uncle John has 
told us about the days just reviewed could be recalled 
and repeated here it would be of thrilling interest. 
Much of it would make the eye moisten and the heart 
glow. If forgotten by us, however, all these details 
and circumstances God remembers, and keeps them 
working in the wide scheme of an unsleeping provi- 
dence toward the foreseen and foretold dominion of His 
Son. How vast may be the range of a blessing drop- 
ping first in a negro hut or a prairie cabin ! Who can 
calculate the final issues of an influence for good start- 
ing on its line of march with a tract left at a door, or a 
prayer offered within ? Who can limit the effect of an 
interview like this which we have heard Uncle John 
describe ? We think it happened during his earlier 
labors in the West. 

In one house that was entered the praying wife of 
an infidel husband begged that a Bible might be given 
her, as there had been none in the home during all their 
married life. One was furnished her, and the missionary 
went his way. Hardly had he got out of sight when 
the husband came in, and instantly his eye lit upon the 
book. One glance aroused all his rage. Seizing the 
volume with one hand, and his axe with the other, he 
hurried out to the wood-pile, and laying it on the chop- 
ping-block, he cut it through and through. Coming 



NEW CAMPAIGNS. 129 

back to the cabin with the two pieces, he hurled one 
toward the wife, saying in a mocking tone, " As you 
claim a part of all the property around here, there is 
your share of this." The other half was pitched up 
into a niche where tools were sometimes kept. Months 
passed. The timid wife could only pray. One wet or 
wintry day, when the maji was indoors, with little to do, 
finding the time hang heavy, he looked around for some- 
thing to read. Reading matter in that home was 
scarce. While rummaging around in this nook in search 
of some old newspaper, what should turn up but his half 
of the mutilated book. To while away the monotony 
of the hour he took it up. Was it by accident that he 
opened at the parable of the prodigal ? He did not 
remember having seen it before. By its simplicity he 
was charmed. Presently the narrative was broken off. 
To finish it he must have the missing piece. Unwilling 
to ask for it, and so acknowledge that even his curiosity 
was stirred, he cast stealthy glances here and there to 
see if it would not appear. But its wary owner had 
safely hidden her fragment of Scripture, and his hunt 
was vain. Pretty soon inquisitiveness conquered pride, 
and at his request the wife produced her piece. The 
story was finished. It was read over again and again. 
Need the outcome of the whole be told ? Another 
wanderer fell at the Father's feet. Another penitent 
was folded in the Father's arms. Another bitter op- 
poser became the champion of a faith which all his life 
he had labored to destroy. 

Had Uncle John emptied out that day on the cabin- 



130 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

floor bags of gold, that had been a smaller gift. Money 
might have wrought the godless settler's ruin. It might 
have helped perpetuate unbelief in his own and other 
souls. It might have blotted his name out of every 
promise and put it into every curse of heaven. The 
Book of God put into that home, with its blood of re- 
demption, sealed his title to a celestial inheritance, and 
made the man the pioneer of other scoffers back to 
God. 

Again we ask where the influence of one such occur- 
rence is to end. Surely " the shock of the archangel's 
trumpet will not break it, nor the gulf of eternity 
swallow it up. 

We are brought now down to 1871. Uncle John 
has seven years remaining in which to war the good 
warfare. It will be carried on in what might be called 
" the Department of the East." 



ALL ALONG THE LINES, 131 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ALL ALONG THE LINES. 

** Every battle I shall win, 
Triumph over every sin, 
• What ! ' you say, ' a victor be ?' 
No, not I, but Christ in me." 

If there is any one part of our country which more 
than another might seem to have little use for such a 
man as Uncle John it is the New England States. 
Settled by men characterized to a pre-eminent degree 
by regard for religious things, populated still chiefly 
by their descendants, studded with churches whose 
pulpits are occupied by preachers inferior in ability 
and devotedness to no others in the land, blessed with 
revivals reaching wide and deep, it would look as 
though these ancient Christian commonwealths would 
have little work for a colporteur anywhere within their 
bounds. 

It is a fact, however, that old-established churches, 
and communities long leavened by gospel truth, some- 
times need to have their decorous and conventional 
ways broken in upon as the smooth religious life of 
eighteen hundred years ago was broken in upon by 
" the voice of one crying in the wilderness." 

There is such a tendency to get into ruts of creed 
and conduct, and go jogging monotonously along 



132 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

them, that every now and then something needs to 
occur that shall start us out of them, and make religion 
seem an awfully earnest thing. Hence it was that 
Uncle John was invited to labor in strong churches of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, the history of some of 
which runs almost back to the coming of the May- 
flower, as well as amid their rural neighborhoods in 
which, on account of removals westward or the concen- 
tration of population in the manufacturing towns, 
gospel influence had to some extent declined. In these 
States he spent a large part of his last half dozen years ; 
but as Maine, Rhode Island, New York, and New 
Jersey shared his labors during that period to some 
extent, we attach to these scattered operations the 
caption, ALL ALONG THE LINES. 

Christian brethren in the various communities 
thus visited send accounts more or less complete of 
the way God wrought through him and by him to 
arouse and save. 

Rev. J. C. Messerve, of New Haven, Conn.: " I 
had just entered upon my ministry when I first saw 
him. He came to my study to see me, and at first I 
thought him some harmless but decidedly crazy man. 
In less than an hour, however, the truth broke in 
upon me that a Christian was in my house of a type 
hitherto unknown. He stayed a few days with me and 
we then formed a friendship which death has not sev- 
ered and which I count one of the richest treasures of 
my life. 

*' Two or three incidents occurred that mostadmir- 



ALL ALONG THE LINES. 133 

ably illustrate his spirit and his methods. This as 
showing the temper with which he met rebuff. One 
day we met a prominent church member. I introduc- 
ed them, and the conversation was not long in reach- 
ing the plainly but kindly put question, ' Are you a 
child of God, and how is it with you ?' The angry and 
unexpected answer was, ' I don't answer any such ques- 
tions. I don't do business that way, sir.' Uncle 
John took no offence, but simply explained that as a 
member of the Lord's kingdom he wished to com- 
municate in the language of that kingdom with any 
fellow-member whom he met. 

" We passed on and soon saw a man approaching 
who was not a believer in a personal devil. I so inform- 
ed Uncle John, who, on being introduced, went on to 
state that he was a colporteur of the American Tract 
Society, travelling over the country fighting the devil ; 
' And do you know, brother, I find some people who 
don't believe there is any devil ; but you and I know 
that these are his greatest dupes.' It was a master 
stroke of policy and tact and skill. 

11 I saw him with an old man of more than eighty 
who had resisted gospel influences all his life, and ap- 
parently was totally unconcerned. In ten minutes his 
indifference melted, and with flowing tears he confess- 
ed his need of Christ. I watched that encounter with 
intense interest, for it was like a duel of wit and argu- 
ment, and discerned that the rarest powers in soul- 
searching were possessed by Uncle John. 

" For three successive winters he helped me when I 

John E. Vassar. I 2 



134 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

was pastor of the little church in State street, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., and under God I believe he saved it from 
disbanding in despair. Such praying and pleading in 
public and private — my heart grows hot with the 
memory of it. 

" I saw him on his knees one day in our lecture-room 
at the close of Sunday-school, pleading for the children, 
some of whom were gathered around. I watched to 
note the effect of the prayer. Presently a boy a dozen 
or more years old dropped on his knees, then he 
crawled under Uncle John's uplifted arm, and finally 
threw himself sobbing upon that broad breast, as true 
a Christian from that hour forward as I ever met. 
Others followed, and the dear old man was presently 
surrounded by a group who were led to the very foot 
of the cross by that prayer. And it was not undue 
excitement either. I want to bear witness to the fact 
that those who were converted under his labors were 
as reliable in their after lives as any Christians whom 
I have known. The lad spoken of became a power in 
the church, and in his own home too. 

" And I want to speak here of a prayer-meeting in 
my own house one night, in which I came nearer real- 
izing heaven upon earth than ever before or since. 
We had been having a blessed time at the church that 
night, and from it came back — my wife, my brother 
(then preparing for the ministry), and myself. After a 
few minutes' conversation Uncle John suggested a 
season of prayer together before going to the night's 
rest. The memory of those next minutes will only 



ALL ALONG THE LINES. 135 

fade with life. With melted hearts and streaming 
eyes by way of Calvary we drew near our Lord. 
Uncle John seemed to me that night like a guide who 
knew every inch of the road and took us right into the 
secret place of the Most High. 

"After I came to New Haven to take charge of 
the Davenport Church, he labored with me between 
two and three weeks. The number of converts was 
large, but the impetus given to the spiritual life of the 
church, and especially the type which its character 
took on was so marked that its progress has been 
wonderful. Hundreds have been attracted to it, and 
I am confident that it was largely because of Uncle 
John that these blessed results came. 

" Of one more fact let me tell. He went by invita- 
tion several winters ago to one of our Connecticut 
towns, and was met by a spirit of decided opposition. 
Some threatened to personally maltreat him if he ven- 
tured into their homes. So wonderfully, however, did 
God work that in a few days he was in those very 
houses, and greeted with a ' Come in, Uncle John, we 
have been waiting and wanting to see you here. ' The 
witnesses of his power over the minds and consciences 
and hearts of men are numbered by thousands in New 
England, and all because he was, as much as any pro- 
phet of old, ' a man of God.' " 

Rev. Mr. Zabriskie, now of Wollaston, Mass., fur- 
nishes the following graphic sketch : 

" One afternoon, in the summer of 1872, I receiv- 
ed a call at my parsonage at Old Saybrook, Conn. I 



136 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

did not catch the name of my visitor so as to recognize 
it, and on entering the reception room I looked with 
some suspicion on the travel-stained man whom I 
found waiting there. I received so many itinerants of 
various degrees of dubiousness, that I had come to 
throw the burden of proof on them in the establish- 
ment of their genuineness and respectability. But by 
and by as it dawned on me that this was Uncle John 
Vassar, the modern successor, if not of the apostles, 
yet of the ' seventy,' and the latchets of whose dusty 
shoes I was not worthy to stoop down and unloose, 
there was a sudden and decided' revolution in my men- 
tal attitude and reception. He had been laboring 
with Dr. Goodell, then of New Brighton, and elsewhere 
in that region, and was passing through Saybrook to 
take the night-boat to New York, and having a little 
time to spare he as usual paid his respects to the min- 
ister to inquire concerning the spiritual condition of 
the place. When he left it was with the promise that 
if the Tract Society would so arrange it he would come 
and work with me. I directed him to the boat, but 
hardly had I closed the door than it occurred to me 
that I had not shown him the attention belonging to 
the carrier of the King, and that I ought to see him 
further on his way. Hastily donning my out-door 
attire, I started after and overtook him about half way 
to the wharf, which was something like a mile away. 

" My heart burned within me while we talked to- 
gether on the road. I took occasion to introduce him to 
several whom I met, even stopping two or three wagons 



ALL ALONG THE LLNES. 137 

for the purpose. Of course every one got a word in sea- 
son, and most of them wore a puzzled look at this Philip 
starting up beside their chariots among the desert sand- 
heaps of Saybrook Point. As some time would elapse 
before the boat would sail, I left him at the Point and 
returned home. But these waiting hours were not 
wasted ones, for not a few laborers and loungers heard 
the Gospel from his lips even there. 

" He was detailed by the Society to work in Say- 
brook, and made his first appearance in our church on 
Sabbath morning, November 10th. After the sermon 
he arose in the midst of the congregation to say a few 
words by way of greeting and preparation for what he 
was there to undertake. His movement was so unex- 
pected and so unprecedented in that staid old com- 
munity, his appearance so plain, his speech so search- 
ing, that the general impression was unfavorable. 
Many afterwards confessed that it took them a long 
while to get over their prejudice. Possibly the time 
and mode were not well chosen. Mr. Vassar always 
contended that he was best adapted to personal effort. 
But the real ' offence' was that he spoke to Christian 
professors in such an uncompromising way about their 
duty, and in such a startling way about their state, 
that every one whose heart was not honest with itself, 
or whose peace was a false one, was sure to be stung 
and irritated. 

" As he went through the town I was greatly inter- 
ested to observe his progress as a kind of touch-stone. 
He was a veritable sword of the Spirit, discerning the 



138 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

thoughts and intents of the heart and laying bare its 
secret. The ' poor in spirit' were sure to be revealed. 
I think he could hardly have encountered more odium 
and opposition anywhere, especially among the mem- 
bers of the churches. Many of my own people regard- 
ed him with great disfavor. The part of the town 
which had once been the source and centre of revival 
work, but which had fallen into formalism and routine, 
was the part in which he found least sympathy and 
encouragement. Those parts, on the contrary, which 
were regarded as the most hopeless and God-forsaken, 
were those where he was most welcome and successful. 
The poor and prodigal felt the beatings of his great 
heart as seeker for souls. The most unexpected people 
in every rank of life ' took' to him, and there were 
equally unexpected cases of revulsion or dislike. I 
said that his first public appearance in Saybrook was 
November ioth. Really it was on the 9th, for on that 
evening, at his request, I rallied a little group in my 
parlor to pray. These brethren were completely won 
to him and to the work. Had there been time to 
gather a larger number that night, his sudden appari- 
tion in the guise of an Elijah in our decorous church 
the next day might have produced a different effect. 

14 On Sunday afternoon and evening Mr. Vassar 
attended all the Sunday-schools and prayer-meetings 
he could reach. During the week he attended and 
addressed the district schools. One young man who 
was teaching declared that he would not allow it, but 
the old veteran stormed the castle and took possession. 



ALL ALONG THE LLNES. 139 

He was a big child everywhere, and could sway and 
win a group of children at his will. 

" On Monday morning he started out, with his dis- 
tricts and families all designated, and began to button- 
hole every one he met with the characteristic question, 
1 Are you sure that you have been born again ?' As I 
was able I went with him. Some remarkable scenes 
took place. We saw a young man chopping wood in 
his back -yard. We stepped across the road and Uncle 
John plied him with sword thrusts. The effect 
was such that he felt prayer was needed, and there by 
the fence, the youth on one side and we on the other, 
we took off our hats and prayed. The young man 
was one of the converts soon. 

" At a store we found another young man alone. 
He found himself cornered, and submitted to the in- 
terview with an ill grace, and a sort of dazed look ; 
but he, too, quickly came to regard that interivew with 
a very different mind. 

" At another place — the post-office I think it was 
— a group was assembled around the stove. He there 
knelt and prayed and called on me to follow. The 
town was soon in a blaze over it, and not all of fire 
from above. 

1 We had a season of great quickening and many 
were converted to the Lord. I regard this work, how- 
ever, as chiefly valuable for its preparatory, and I 
might almost say revolutionary, effect. That fallow 
soil needed just such a sub-soil plow, and I had calcu- 
lated on it when I engaged him to come. It was a hard 



i 4 o UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

fight, but the question was settled. The whole theory 
of religion and policy of work were changed from rou- 
tine to revivalism, and the fruits have been ripening 
and been gathered ever since. 

" What prodigous labor the good man did ! He 
did not realize it himself. Tramp, tramp, from dawn 
to dark, with such a continuous draft upon his nerv- 
ous vigor and vitality. I have often marvelled that 
he held out so long. Oh, how rich I have always felt 
in the special love and recognition of this great and 
saintly soul. My children loved him dearly and remem- 
ber him to this day. There is one tune he used to sing 
which we call " Vassar • still. The words he used to 
put to it were, 'Alas! and did my Saviour bleed.' 
There was a Catholic woman who would not listen to 
him or take a tract from his hand, but she did finally 
suffer him to sing. And to this tune, whose proper 
name I do not know, he raised the verse : 

' But drops of grief can ne'er repay 
The debt of love I owe,' 

and at its close she was utterly subdued and ultimately 
became a true Christian. Her experience she used to 
sum up in the words, ' Ah those drops of grief, those 
drops of grief — I couldn't get over them.' 

" Perhaps I ought to add one incident showing that 
Uncle John was capable not only of heroic treatment, 
but of righteous indignation where the circumstances 
of the case required it. At a house where we had been 
holding a neighborhood prayer-meeting one night a 
man was visiting who was a stranger to us all. As he 



ALL ALONG THE LLNES. 141 

was one who remained at the close of the service Uncle 
John approached him with his tender earnestness and 
searching questions. But the man in a dogged and 
discourteous way opposed a flat denial to every state- 
ment made, especially those touching his accountabil- 
ity and danger. I shall never forget the change which 
came over Uncle John's manner. He rose to a Sina- 
itic attitude above the wretched caviller, and his cap- 
tious and blasphemous speech, as if for the moment he 
was wielding the divine thunderbolts, then suddenly 
softening into an almost equally awful tenderness he 
fairly dragged him to the mercy-seat, and called on us 
to pray. Whether the fellow was savingly affected or 
not I cannot tell, as he left the place the following 
day, but he was morally cowed that night, and crouched 
speechless before Uncle John." 

Rev. J. W. Tuck, now of Middletown, Conn., tells 
of labor at Jewett City, in the same State, in connec- 
tion with the Congregational church there. 

" He came to my house on Saturday evening, 
November 29th, 1873. The way had been measurably 
prepared among us by an increased number of meet- 
ings, and a prevalent expectation of coming good. 
The next day he listened to the usual preaching in the 
morning, and in the afternoon the order of the service 
was left chiefly in his hands. After the reading of a 
few verses from the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah and brief 
comments thereon by the pastor, he came forward and 
in earnest words falling from lips touched as with a liv- 
ing coal addressed the church for thirty minutes, ex- 



i.42 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

horting them to let their light shine and live above the 
world. He then proposed that they should publicly 
renew their covenant vows by coming out into seats 
which he indicated. The request at first seemed in- 
judicious. The congregation was a most conservative 
one, the proposition was unexpected, and the man who 
made it was almost unknown. There was a moment 
of painful suspense, a silence that could almost be felt. 
Then a pew door near the front swung open, and one 
family walked out and complied with the request. 
Another and another followed until the desired separa- 
tion was complete ; then to both parts of his audience 
were addressed other ringing words, and so the first 
meeting closed with tokens of good. In the evening a 
large assembly met in our conference room. The meet- 
ing was remarkable for its solemnity, but no new de- 
monstrations on the part of saint or sinner were pro- 
posed. The next night there were greater numbers 
still, and a deeper interest could be read on every face. 
It was at this time that many of the new gospel songs 
began among my people to be introduced. Uncle 
John was a sweet singer in Israel, and those pieces 
known as 'Wondrous Love,' 'Sweet By and By,' 
1 Whiter than Snow, ' and many like them he rang out 
with marvellous effect, and they will be associated 
with his name and work for a long time to come by 
the hundreds who first heard them from his lips. 

" On this second evening five rose for prayer. The 
next night fifteen thus responded to the invitation, 
and now the revival broadened and deepened, over- 



ALL ALONG THE LINES. 143 

coming opposition, or holding it in check, till scores 
had been converted to Christ. * 

"The special meetings continued only two weeks 
though they were kept up partially all the winter, but 
forty were added to our membership and the whole 
body lifted up to a high plane of Christian life. 

' The name of Uncle John to the young people of 
my former charge — and I might say to the elders also 
— is to this day an inspiration, and his memory is a 
sweet savor never to be lost. ' ' 

In the course of his evangelistic labors he entered 
the town of Otis, in Western Massachusetts, and what 
happened there let Rev. O. L. Leonard, who spent a 
week with him on that ground, tell. 

' ' It was a cold dark time spiritually when Uncle 
John arrived. The pastor was feeling much disheart- 
ened, and said to him, ' The place is dead, the church 
is dead, we are all dead ; if you can do anything to 
help us, do it.' Uncle John went out and began to 
visit. It was right in the heat of summer, and the 
people, who were mostly farmers, were busy in the 
fields. ' No time for a revival now ;' that was 
what they said right to his face. 

" He believed that the dry bones could live. The 
church was opened. It was soon filled. Soon the old 
cry began to be heard, ' What shall I do to be saved ?' 
and the town was shaken by the mighty power of God. 
About fifty souls were converted in that farming region 
right in the heat of summer." 



144 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

Another who was led to Christ during these meet- 
ings reports them more at length. 

" For many days after coming to Otis Centre, 
Uncle John saw almost no result from the efforts put 
forth. Even his courage seemed somewhat shaken, 
but not enough to make him let go or even relax en- 
deavor. And presently the blessing came like the 
rush of many waters. The writer well remembers the 
evening when the first token of giving way appeared. 
The meeting had been more constrained than usual, 
and Uncle John was perceptibly cast down. Before it 
closed one arose and requested prayers. The effect 
was electrical. From that point concern took the 
place of apathy, and salvation moved right on. The 
whole town was shaken, and ultimately the towns 
around. It was spoken of by the religious press as the 
midsummer revival, and the scene of the farmers work- 
ing in the hay field all day and attending the meeting 
at evening day after day certainly was wonderful. 

" The tact of Uncle John seemed almost supernat- 
ural. Many instances of his unerring judgment in 
approaching people might be given, but two or three 
must suffice. One man had arranged for an argument 
with Uncle John if he should be addressed, which he 
felt sure would settle the whole case. Uncle John 
gave him no chance to speak. He came up all smil- 
ing, invited the man to meeting, told him he knew his 
duty, and before an answer could be given was off. 
The man began to think, and was led to Christ. 

"Another had arranged for a ridiculous scene if 



ALL ALONG THE LINES. 145 

Uncle John came. He did not go near the man, and 
this unlooked-for way of disconcerting the. carefully 
laid scheme set reflection working, and this man and 
his wife both turned to the Lord. 

" All too soon came the time for him to leave 
our vicinity, but his influence remained, and for a long 
time yet his name will be revered in Otis, and his 
memory be a power." 

From North Blandford, where he wrought the fol 
lowing summer, these reminiscences come, 

" I was at work in my garden in the summer of 
1875, when I observed an odd little man walking 
rapidly toward the parsonage, and thinking him to be 
some book agent I continued my work. As he came 
up he said in a pleasant voice, ' Watchman, what of 
the night ? ' I replied, ' Glory to God, the morning 
cometh.' He extended to me his hand, and I knew 
John Vassar. He was taken at once into the parson- 
age and quickly into all our hearts. 

' The work contemplated during the few days he 
could remain was fully discussed ; and here he exhib- 
ited that trait of Christian character which was every- 
where so manifest, his humility. He began his labors 
with me Sunday, July 18th. It was a pleasant day, and 
many came to hear the strange man of whom so much 
had been said. He read the first psalm and gave a 
beautiful exposition of it, showing how mighty he was 
in the Word of God. All through the week services 
were kept up and the awakening was great. Those who 
never came to the sanctuary were hunted to their hid- 

John E. Vasiar. *3 



146 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

ing places and led out. Stumbling blocks that seemed 
in the way were removed, and though his stay was 
short he prepared the way for the rich revival that fol- 
lowed. In our community he was emphatically a John 
the Baptist, sent to prepare the way of the Lord." 

Of these labors in Western Massachusetts Rev. 
George L. Ruberg, then a pastor in that section, also 
gives a report. " Uncle John's introduction to this 
part of the State was through the kindly interest of 
Homer Merriam, Esq., of Springfield, who was so 
deeply concerned about the low state of religion pre- 
vailing that he felt constrained to assume the expense 
of evangelical labor for the field. Arrangements were 
made for Uncle John to visit Otis in May, 1874. A 
series of meetings were held in the Congregational 
Church, and many of the leading citizens of the village 
and surrounding community were led to Christ. 

" During the work the hotel was even opened for 
prayer-meetings, and the power of God was most 
graciously displayed. 

" So manifest was the good accomplished that Mr. 
Merrian determined to send Uncle John on a summer 
campaign amid the Berkshire hills ; so after leaving 
Otis, Sandisfield secured his services for a week. In 
this town there had not been for a long time any gen- 
eral revival of religion, and there was not in any of the 
churches a resident male member under thirty years of 
age, though we had a larger number of young men liv- 
ing there than in any town around. 

" Uncle John's visit here had been but briefly an- 



ALL ALONG THE LLNES. 147 

nounced, yet the church at Montville village was ready 
to receive him. I went with my own carriage to meet 
him, and found him out calling still, so anxious was he 
to improve even the last moment of his stay. Hardly 
had we finished dinner before he said, ' Are there no 
places we can visit yet this afternoon ?' The inquiry 
impressed me, for it was now three o'clock or later, 
and I had expected he would want to rest so as to be 
ready for the meeting at night. We immediately 
started out. Our first call was at the post-office. 
Found two persons beside the postmaster in. One 
was a Christian, and the others were not. All were 
tenderly addressed ; then with his hand resting on the 
counter and standing he offered a short but most fer- 
vent prayer. I shall never forget that scene, and what 
subsequently occurred. 

"One lady on whom we called was considered a 
woman of devout piety. In answer to the question, 
' Do you love Jesus ? ' She said, rather despondently, 
'Not half so well as I ought/ 'Dear sister,' said 
Uncle John, ' I wish you would tell me how I can love 
Him more ? ' 

M From the first day of his coming the revival went 
steadily on. Although for a farming community it 
was the busiest season of the year, none tried to ex- 
cuse themselves from being seen. Men not at all in 
sympathy with religious things would lay down the 
hoe in the field, or suspend any other labor, and go 
into the house for conversation and prayer. Uncle 
John seemed unwilling to pass any house. 



148 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

" The last night he was in our place, as the bell 
was ringing and we were on our way to church, we 
noticed a group of men on the steps of a store oppo- 
site the post-office. Among them was a loud-mouthed 
and low-mouthed scoffer. He beckoned from the 
crowd, saying, ' Captain, I want to speak to you ? ' 

1 Do you mean me ?' asked Uncle John. ' Yes,' was 
the reply. Uncle John told me to go on and open the 
meeting, and promptly crossed the street where the 
blasphemer stood. The man's first remark was that if 
Uncle John did not leave the place within twenty-four 
hours he would ' give him a thrashing.' Uncle John 
kindly but fearlessly replied that his engagements would 
compel him to go the following day, but that if the 
arrangements were not already made he would cer- 
tainly remain. Some of the best citizens witnessed 
the interview and were deeply impressed, when Uncle 
John, taking the abusive fellow's hand, plead with him 
and prayed till he was subdued to perfect silence. A 
number came over to our meeting that night for the 
first time, declaring that if they had any moral influ- 
ence they wanted to cast it on that side. 

"Among those who so sought to express their 
opinion of this transaction was the postmaster of the 
village and another prominent citizen, both of whom 
were converted ; and another who had previously led 
a reckless life in relating his experience said that his 
conviction of sin started when he heard Uncle John so 
attacked. That exhibition of depravity convinced him 
of the exceeding ' sinfulness of sin.' Satan sometimes 



ALL ALONG THE LINES. 149 

blunders fearfully. That night and there he over- 
leaped himself. 

" For months Sandisfield, Colebrook, Conn., Lee, 
Tyringham, and Monterey felt the effect of Uncle John's 
incessant labors, or perhaps we should put it — the power 
of God. He who called himself ' legs for Baxter and 
Bunyan ' was a voice for Homer Merriam as well. The 
accessions to the churches following his labors were 
more than three hundred, and the man will be lovingly 
remembered in many a household for years to come. 
Even the children of tender age will long remember 
one who so much loved them and whom they so much 
loved." 

Of this same memorable summer, and of this same 
vicinity, let a Christian woman speak, mentioning 
briefly a special case or two. 

" In one family in Otis there were nine conversions, 
and most of them have been earnest workers in the 
good cause ever since. In another there were four 
brought to accept of Christ, and hardly one household 
was there some member of which did not come to sing 
the wonders of redeeming grace. Often I heard Uncle 
John say, ' I can never doubt any more, so wonderful 
have been the answers to prayer. ' 

Only once do I remember seeing him introduced 
to a stranger to whom he did not say something about 
the great salvation. This one was an elderly lady who 
happened to be in the room when he called on busi- 
ness. He left the house and got perhaps as far as the 

13* 



150 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

gate when the omission occurred to him, and back 
again he came and talked with her and prayed." 

Another Christian woman tells of a man in Sandis- 
field seventy-four years of age, profane, and of drink- 
ing habits, who declared that he had never felt himself 
a sinner till Uncle John got hold of his hand and be- 
gan to plead with him. For days he passed through 
agony of mind much like that which uncle John him- 
self experienced, but at last came into the peace of 
Christ and demonstrated the genuineness of his hope 
afterward by an upright life. 

Of his labors in Boston and vicinity Rev. Drs. Gor- 
don and Fulton will elsewhere tell. Enough to say 
just here that his sterling worth and efficient services 
were recognized and appreciated by cultured Christian 
men as well as by a humbler class, and that to their 
homes and churches he was welcomed as a brother be- 
loved in the Lord, and a laborer esteemed for his 
work's sake. Henry F. Durant, the founder of Wel- 
lesley College, in inviting him to his elegant home for 
a week, said to a mutual friend, " I consider myself 
more honored to entertain this man of God than to 
have a king for my guest." 

In the Charlestown district, where for two winters 
he aided different pastors, one of them already quoted 
says, " The meetings we held were foretastes of 
heaven. Uncle John was at his best. He had great 
physical infirmities, but he rose above them, as he 
often said, 'by mighty faith and prayer.' Oh, what 
days those were ! Would God we might see their like 



ALL ALONG THE LLNES. 151 

again. Hundreds entered into covenant with Christ 
and His church." 

Of a week spent at Keyport, N. J., Rev. J. K. 
Manning, with whom he labored, has this to say : 

" We were in the midst of a powerful revival when 
he came, and his first words after learning our con- 
dition were, ' I am not needed here. My chief work 
is among churches that are measurably cold or dead.' 
With difficulty he was persuaded to remain, and with 
the deacons go from house to house. The service he 
rendered in this way was grand. 

" For three characteristics especially he is remem- 
bered here. 

" First, his resort to prayer when met by cavilling 
or gainsaying tongues, and his readiness to plead with 
men, and for men, in any place, and in every circum- 
stance. 

" Second. His persistent holding of the penitent 
and inquiring soul to the promises of God as the means 
and source of comfort. He was the most faithful to 
the "Word of God of any man I ever knew. 

" Third. The impression made on all minds that 
doing good was the mission of his life. Many speak 
of him yet as the man who knew nothing excepting 
the seeking and saving of souls." 

To another New Jersey pastor anxious to secure his 
services for a few days he writes : 

Dear Brother Love : 

" I have your kind letter, and rejoice to hear of the 
salvation of souls at Croton. God grant the work may 



iS2 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

be deep and widespread. I would come and help you 
if I could, but I have been four months with Dr. Tyng, 
who has received more than seven hundred this year 
into the membership of his church, and am now en- 
gaged elsewhere for a season. My heart is with you." 

The '•' tent work" of Dr. Tyng's referred to above 
he will tell us of elsewhere. One who was with Uncle 
John all through it says, " Let me speak of one little 
prayer-meeting in the street. After the tent service 
one night a group of us were returning home together, 
our hearts full of joy over the scenes of grace and 
mercy from which we had just come, and on the corner 
of Thirty-fourth Street and Madison Avenue we stop- 
ped beside an iron railing and began to sing and pray. 
It was a precious season, and the wandering street 
sweepers dropped their brooms and gathered quietly 
around, as under the stars declaring the glory of God 
in creation we sang of His greater glory in redemption 
through Christ our Lord." 

Rev. S. L. Bowler, of Machias, Maine, now secured 
Uncle John's services for some of the more destitute 
regions of that State. In a single county there were 
a score of churches that had no pastor, most of them 
being too feeble to maintain one. The Maine Mission- 
ary Society cordially co-operated with the lay evange- 
list, and the results everywhere else witnessed were 
here quickly seen and felt. 

From one of the churches thus visited and blest a 
Christian man sends these lines : 



ALL ALONG THE LINES. 153 

"His labors here were crowned with great success. 
The church was quickened ; souls were saved ; every 
house in the place I think was visited, and he con- 
versed with nearly every person in the town. One 
young sea captain who was evidently failing with con- 
sumption interested Uncle John very much. He had 
not been married long, and neither he nor his wife had 
the Christian's trust. Oh, how he did entreat them ! 
and even when praying elsewhere, especially at our 
family devotions, he would break out with ' Oh, God, 
bless the captain and his wife. ' The prayer was fully 
answered. Both were happily converted. He died soon 
after, and she has followed him now to the other side. 
" While he was with us our only child first mani- 
fested an interest in religious things, and the very walls 
of our house seem to have been made sacred by his 
many prayers. 

" I can never forget our last interview. He had 
gone on board the steamer after commending us ten- 
derly to the Lord and bidding us good-by, when I 
had occasion again to see him at nearly eleven o'clock 
at night. Quietly I went to his berth thinking he 
might be asleep, and found him repeating over the 
names of persons in our place. He said he was doing 
it that he might carry them individually to God in 
prayer. As the parting hand was finally given he said, 
' I am an old man, and shall probably go before you, 
but by the grace of God I shall expect to meet you 
again in heaven.' His prediction has proved correct. 
God grant his hope may find its realization." 



154 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

The following account of one of the most extensive 
ingatherings of souls in which for the last year or two 
of life he shared, is from the pen of Mr. J. C. Tiffany, 
who was with him through it, and in later labors in 
Greene County, N. Y. 

"About the first of February, 1877, a revival of 
God's work was progressing in the M. E. church of 
Coxsackie, N. Y. Its pastor, Rev. Gideon Draper, 
becoming weary under prolonged efforts, requested 
the writer to see if he could not obtain some help from 
abroad. I arrived in New York in the evening, and at- 
tended service at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Dr. 
S. H. Tyng, Jr., Rector. There I heard Uncle John 
Vassar pray with great unction and power. I applied 
to Dr. Tyng for aid, and out of the largeness of his 
heart he arranged to send his then assistant, Rev. Mr. 
Humpstone, for a few days, and Uncle John for a 
longer time. They went up to Coxsackie at once. 
The pastor and official board were at a store waiting to 
meet us. They began to lay plans of work. Uncle 
John took off his hat and said, ' Let us pray about it. ' 
This was something new to us, and the customers in 
the store had whereof to talk. 

" Before night came he had struck in among the 
people in his usual way, and many were saying that we 
had got a crazy man to help us. He called right up to 
meeting time, stopping only to get a hasty meal. The 
effect was seen the first evening in an increased at- 
tendance. Seeing the backwardness of many Chris- 
tians, a consecration meeting among them was pro- 



ALL ALONG THE LLNES. 155 

posed. It was a season never to be forgotten. Cold- 
ness melted away, denominational lines were broken 
down, and the people of God were ready for their work. 
A daily noon prayer-meeting was started. Christians 
of all names came into it. Many young men came in 
and turned to God. Strong men bowed themselves at 
Jesus' feet, and many hardened sinners found a 
Saviour. It was no unusual thing to have from eight 
to fifteen conversions in a single day. Some answers 
to prayer were wonderful. 

"After four weeks thus spent at the Land- 
ing we went to the upper village, and the First 
Reformed Church opened its doors for the service. 
The work of salvation started the first day. Old 
difficulties were reconciled, and estranged neighbors 
or brethren made one. Old grudges and animosities, 
which had gone so far as to prevent those sharing 
them from speaking to each other, were swept away. 
At one of the noon prayer-meetings a divine power fell 
on the people such as Uncle John himself confessed 
that he had never seen displayed, and such as Coxsackie 
had never known the like of. 

" The apparent result of the work was that over 
three hundred were added to the churches there, while 
some joined elsewhere. More than one hundred of this 
number were young business men between eighteen 
and thirty years of age, the most of whom are active 
working Christians still. School-house meetings were 
started in the country round about, which are yet 
kept up, and in which conversions are from time 



156 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

to time occurring now, resulting from seed then 
own. 

" Many who were then converted have already- 
entered into rest. They have again met the dear old 
man, but this time at the feet of the Master, where 
they will part no more. We who remain are going on 
to join the heavenly throng saved by grace divine." 

These attacks " all along the line" were coming to 
an end. There is but one more that we shall mention 
in this chapter or give the details of. It was at Green- 
ville, Greene County N. Y., where it was made, and 
Rev. W. P. Gibson reports it thus : 

" My first impression on seeing Uncle John at my 
gate was that he was some old wide-awake farmer 
turned book-agent, who had come to the parsonage 
having a special axe to grind ; but as he had been at 
my house once when I was absent, my family recog- 
nized him, and he was soon perfectly at home. 
Seven weeks we spent together travelling those hills, 
talking, preaching, praying ; and it was nearly his last 
work here below. 

" On one occasion he was seen praying with a group 
of men along the road, and was published as an es- 
caped lunatic in our village paper. Sometimes his kind 
approaches were repulsed, but never, so far as I am 
aware, by a non-professor of religion. In one or two in- 
stances nominal Christians declined having any conver- 
sation with him, or any prayer offered in their homes, 
asserting that they belonged to the church and had no 
need of such service." 



ALL ALONG THE LINES. 157 

" His modesty forbade his leading the meetings 
unless specially requested, but his stirring exhortations 
and moving petitions told upon the audience power- 
fully at times. I remember a few impassioned appeals 
that were truly eloquent with lofty and well-expressed 
thought. His singing too was a great help. Though 
his voice was somewhat weakened and roughened by 
age, he sang with the spirit, and his selections inva- 
riably fitted the places where they came in. On one 
occasion we were singing at family worship, 

' Oh, why was He there as the bearer of sin 
If on Jesus my sin was not laid ? ' 

As the thought took possession of him he ex- 
claimed, 'Sure enough,' and repeating the lines he 
laughed and wept for very joy. 

11 Dear Uncle John ! his stay with us was like an 
angel's visit, and we cherish his words and looks in 
memory, as of one very intimate with Jesus, and dwell- 
ing even here ' quite on the verge of heaven.' ' 

During these meetings one who roomed with him 
many nights says: "At this time he was suffering 
severely from the disease which caused his death, and 
the pain at intervals was fearful. During one of these 
intervals, when he supposed me sleeping, after being 
up for a while he came back to bed and laid down as 
carefully as a mother would by her sick child for fear 
of disturbing me, and then in an underbreath I heard 
him say, ' Dear Lord, how much better this than sin /' ' 

Another, writing of a date perhaps earlier, says : 
"A little incident occurred which pleased me very 

John E. Va»«*r. 1 4 



158 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

much the night he stopped with us. When I went to 
show him to his room I said on entering it, ' We call 
this the prophet's chamber. Many ministers have oc- 
cupied it, but it is doubly hallowed to us since in it our 
dear old pastor laid off his robe of flesh and went to 
God.' Uncle John's face fairly beamed with delight 
as he exclaimed, ' Oh, I am so glad to know that there 
is a passage direct from here to heaven !' " 

He was ripening now rapidly. He was soon to see 
the King in his beauty. 



WEAPONS IN THE FIGHT. 159 



CHAPTER IX. 

WEAPONS IN THE FIGHT. 

"His was the saint's high faith, 
And quenchless Hope's pure glow, 
And perfect Charity, which laid 
The world's fell tyrant low. 
In him the Father shone ; 
In him the Son o'ercame ; 
In him the Holy Spirit wrought, 
And filled his heart with flame." 

It is exceedingly difficult to analyze what men call 
personal power. It is easily recognized and readily 
confessed, but its elements are not easily discovered or 
described. John Vassar struck blows that fell heavy 
and cut deep. What were the weapons used ? Drop- 
ping the figure, what made him the man he was ? 

Certain constitutional peculiarities probably helped : 
natural ardor, vivacity, persistency, sympathy, had 
something to do with the work. We will not leave 
them altogether out of the account. But the real 
springs of character were not in these. The palm of 
the desert, fruitful and beautiful, does not find its 
supplies in itself. Nor does it find them in the burn- 
ing, blistering sand out of which it grows. The sources 
of its life lie deeper down. Far underneath are veins 
of water at which its rootlets drink and from which 
they draw up nourishment which keeps the uppermost 



160 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

and outmost leaves fresh and fair when sultry suns are 
smiting. A consecrated life depends on unseen and 
eternal sources for what it is and what it gives. Some 
of Uncle John's characteristics have of necessity been 
brought in sight, and the secret sources of their strength 
have been glimpsed as we have gone along. They need, 
however, to be set in a stronger light, and all eyes 
turned on them ; for the practical effect of this book 
will be short-lived and superficial unless Christian men 
can be made to see what are, and must ever be, the 
elements as well as the sources of personal spiritual 
power. 

Though it may involve more or less repetition, then 
let the strong points of the man be stated and empha- 
sized, and further illustrated. 

Unflinching loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, based 
on an adoring love y was the mainspring to all he was 
and all he did. 

Somebody has said of Arnold of Rugby that " the 
central fact of his experience was his close, conscious, 
and ever-realized union and friendship with the Lord 
Jesus ; and that in the ever-flowing fulness of his heart 
every expression of affection that might pass between 
earthly friends passed between him and the Divine 
Man whom as a friend he had in heaven, and to whom 
with an exhaustless enjoyment he clung." A picture 
in words this of Uncle John. An irreverent mention 
of the Saviour's name would cause him keen distress. 
While we were residing in Lynn, Mass., he made us 
several flying visits, on one of which a Unitarian gentle- 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. 161 

man of the city said to him, in a flash of irritation, 
" Sir, to pay divine honor to this Jesus of Nazareth of 
whom you talk so much is in my opinion insulting to 
the Almighty." It was hours before Uncle John got 
over that. It pained him more than if child or brother 
had received a cruel thrust. 

And he was just as sensitive if there was no recog- 
nition of that Name where he thought it ought to have 

a place. One day he came out of W Street church, 

where a noted minister had preached, and with a 
grieved, disappointed look and a quivering voice he 

said, "Oh, T , he never mentioned the name of 

Jesus once." 

And in all this there was not a particle of pretence 
or cant. This love of Christ was not a fancy or a senti- 
ment. It was a principle, a passion, an abiding mo- 
tive. It was the antidote against worldliness. It was 
the incentive to action which this world could not un- 
derstand, and for which it sometimes had nothing more 
than scorn. Heavy loads and hard toils grew light 
when with this affection the heart glowed. Poverty, 
reproach, death even — what were they but the passing 
flurries of an April day ? Who that was intimate but 
has heard him say : 

" One smile, one blissful smile of Thine, 
My dearest Lord, outweighs them all." 

When they were probing among his shattered ribs 
for the fatal bullet, the French veteran exclaimed, " A 
little deeper, and you will find the emperor." In 
Uncle John's heart the deepest emotion was love for 



1 62 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

his Saviour. Deeper than the love of home, deeper 
than the love of kindred, deeper than the love of coun- 
try, aye deeper than the love of life, was his affection 
for that Redeemer who had first loved him and given 
Himself for him. He did not talk so much of heaven 
as many Christians do. He talked of being with the 
Lord and like Him. That was his ideal of the coming 
blessedness. 

Out of this attachment grew what was probably the 
next most prominent feature of his life, and one of the 
mightiest forces in his work — his habitual and almost 
tinbroken intercourse with God in prayer. 

A man who came so near a literal compliance with 
the apostolic charge, " Pray without ceasing," few 
Christians in these latter days have known. One long 
his pastor, and longer still his friend, bears testimony 
on this point that a stranger might think too strong, 
but every word of which hundreds would indorse. 

"He absolutely prayed day and night. Prayed 
about every thing. Prayed over every thing. Prayed 
for almost everybody, and prayed with almost every- 
body whom he met. He prayed when he went out, 
and when he came in. He prayed before every re- 
ligious service, and then prayed all the way through it. 
I have roomed with him night after night, and rarely 
went to sleep without hearing him at prayer, or awoke 
without finding him at. prayer. He seldom, if ever, 
came into my house or study that he did not propose 
a season of prayer, no matter how brief might be the 
call, or what the errand that brought him there." 



WEAPONS IN THE FIGHT. 163 

His gift in prayer was very remarkable — more re- 
markable, we think, than his giftof speech, though that 
was sometimes wonderful, and always of a more than 
ordinary kind. Several special supplications of his 
have already been referred to, and prayers very like 
them others will recall. 

William N. Sage, Esq., of Rochester, N. Y., 
speaks of one such which he offered in that city a 
dozen years ago. The First Baptist Church had just 
finished a " memorial chapel" on Lake Avenue, and 
before its formal dedication Uncle John and the late 
Deacon Oren Sage — a kindred spirit — went into it alone, 
and there on bended knees wrestled with God that 
His awakening and converting Spirit might so fill those 
courts that of many of the finally redeemed it might 
be said, " This man and that were born there." He 
further adds that most signally and graciously God an- 
swered that request, and by displays of His salvation 
made the place of His feet glorious. 

In a prayer-meeting he was a host. If a spirit of 
dulness or heaviness pervaded it, somehow it seemed, 
as he began to wrestle, to be lifted off. One of the 
members of his own church who has already been 
quoted tells what animation his simple presence gave 
to the little company that met there in the usual de- 
votional meetings of the week. 

" He was often sent home to rest by the Tract So- 
ciety, but before he would go home even he would stop 
into the prayer-meeting of his church if it happened 
to be going on. If we did not see him enter we would 



1 64 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

quickly know that he was there. Oh, how he would 
wrestle for the dear old church in which he was born 
again ! Then how he would recount recent wonders of 
redeeming grace, keeping himself all the time in the 
background and giving God the glory. No matter 
how truthfully we might have been singing 

" Hosannas languish on our tongues, 
And our devotion dies," 

it seemed as we listened to him as good to be there as 
it was to the apostles to be on the mount of transfigu- 
ration, and the Lord granted us such revelations of 
Himself as made our place of prayer something like 
that hilltop for radiance." 

Few phrases are more common among Christian 
men than this, "the privilege of prayer;" but it is 
greatly to be feared that many who use it would more 
correctly represent their own personal feeling if they 
were to say ' ' the drudgery of prayer. ' ' At least an 
honest conscience would compel them to say that it 
was a dull duty ; uninviting often, and sometimes posi- 
tively irksome, and engaged in as much to keep a 
sense of obligation quiet as for any thing else. Now to 
John Vassar prayer was a privilege, a blessed privilege, 
and a real deep delight. It was a lament of the 
prophet over the degeneracy of God's people, " None 
stirreth himself up to take hold of Thee. ' ' That is, de- 
votion was a droning, drawling thing. There was no 
holy energy about the exercise. This was not true of 
Uncle John. He seemed to know the meaning of 
those mysterious expressions, " Praying in the Holy 



WEAPONS IN THE FIGHT. 165 

Ghost/' " With all prayer in the Spirit ;" and so his 
supplications were intense. There was a specific ob- 
ject to attain. Coming to the throne of grace was 
not a romance or a pious farce. He could not ap- 
proach it "with easiness of desire." He could not 
tamely beg. There were r< deep-swelling sensibili- 
ties," as Dr. Phelps calls them, to be relieved. It was 
deep calling unto deep. 

Whether the repeated instances given us of his 
praying along the roads, and in stores and shops, are 
to be commended and held up for our example, is a 
question concerning which good men may disagree. 
Circumstances would have to decide the case. In 
many instances it might be a perfectly proper thing to 
do ; at least a perfectly proper thing for him. We 
should not feel warranted to urge such a course on all. 
A brother pastor near us voices about our own opinion 
in the case : ' ' It seems to me that it would be a fatal 
mistake for many to venture on the ground which 
Uncle John trod with so much success. Very few- 
could say or do what he did without making ' a mess ' 
of it. There must be the man, the character ; so much 
depends on that. The tone, the manner, the evident 
sincerity, may command respect in one case where it 
would be very offensive in another. What is heroic 
boldness in one man might be insolent rudeness in 
another, and do vastly more harm than good. 

Obviously enough, the besetting sin of good men 
to-day is not to "violate the proprieties" in their 
efforts to save souls ; so while not insisting that Uncle 



166 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

John's example is a model in every particular for all 
who would win the wandering to Christ, the question 
may well be asked, and seriously pondered, whether we 
are not in danger, by our over-nice notions concerning 
means and methods, of letting men perish whom we 
have been commanded to pull out of the fire. 

Interwoven with these other qualities there was in 
Uncle John a mighty faith. 

No place and no case seemed too hard or too hope- 
less for him to grapple with. Forbidding circum- 
stances and a gloomy outlook never shook his trust nor 
tied his tongue. Indeed, he saw no gloomy outlook, 
for he. did not look out so much as up. If asked what 
the prospect was in any direction, he would have said, 
with Adoniram Judson, " As bright as the promises of 
God." He did not believe simply in the God of ages 
ago. He believed in the God of to-day. He could 
not be persuaded that the wonder-working Spirit fin- 
ished His operations at Pentecost. He could not be 
convinced that the supernatural was no longer to be 
looked for. He could see no reason why the modern 
Saul of Tarsus should not be as sharply called and as 
suddenly turned as the ancient persecuting zealot was. 
When going on what others regarded as "a forlorn 
hope," he would go into the closet and beg for a 
special anointing, an enduement of power from on 
high, and then with a deepened confidence start out. 
" One day he went to call on a lady whose husband 
was a skeptic and a bitter opposer of religion. The 
man saw him entering the gate, and stepping to the 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. 167 

door, said, ' You are coming here to pray with my 
wife, I presume. Now let me tell you I don't allow 
any prayer in this house. Leave at once, and never 
show your face here again.' Uncle John hesitated a 
moment, then left, and going to his stopping-place 
plead long and earnestly for help to reach that case. 
Rising from his knees, and ' nothing doubting,' he 
went straight back to the house from which he had been 
less than an hour before repulsed. The man again met 
him, and after a moment's parleying told him that if 
he would not pray he might come in. Uncle John 
refused to make any such promise, but nevertheless 
got in. An urgent message from God was soon ring- 
ing in the unbeliever's ears, and before the interview 
ended, humbled and subdued he was bowing by the 
side of Uncle John listening to supplications for his 
own salvation." 

Again and again, when assured that a contemplated 
effort would be fruitless, that it would be the sinking 
of a bucket in a dry well, and the bringing of nothing 
up, he would beg the privilege of trying. He would 
get a church or a school-house open, and then explore 
the region to invite the people out. Almost invariably 
a revival would commence. Often God would triumph 
gloriously. Converts would be multiplied. Dull 
churches or dull Christians would get aglow. There 
would be apostolic work because it was underlaid and 
pushed with apostolic faith. 

It would be foolish, and even false, to say that re- 
ligiously there are no hard fields and no hard souls. 



1 68 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

There are both. When Christ appointed the Seventy, 
the record is that He sent them " into every city and 
place whither He himself would come." It sometimes 
looks now as if there were places where He did not 
come. They seem as dry, spiritually, as those moun- 
tains of Gilboa would have been, literally, had David's 
desire been granted and neither rain nor dew had 
dropped upon their slopes. There are hearts that do 
appear almost unimpressible. Warnings and appeals, no 
matter how faithful or how pungent, seem to glide off 
like hail from a slated roof, and leave traces as faint 
and few behind. 

In such circumstances one needs the faith Elijah 
had when, with the brazen skies hanging over Carmel, 
he bade Ahab hurry homeward before the rain should 
overtake. Uncle John had it in an eminent degree. 
He never forgot what grace had done for him. He 
believed it could do as much for any other man. 

His acquaintance with the Bible was very intimate 
and thorough, every promise and penalty and precept 
and prophecy being apparently at his command. 

To him Scripture was the one standard of Christian 
truth. To its teachings nothing was to be added ; 
from its decisions there could be no appeal. In deal- 
ing with errorists, the only question he would allow 
himself to look at was, What has God said ? The mo- 
ment any thing like quibbling or cavilling was heard, 
out would come his well-worn Testament, and text 
after text would be turned to till captious lips were 
closed. The inspired Word was the book he studied 



WEAPONS IN THE FIGHT. 169 

most. It was to him exactly what it claims to be — ■ 
" the sword of the Spirit ;" and what was the hilt, and 
what the blade, and how to get hold of the one and 
smite with the other, was what he sought to know. 
The authenticity of Scripture he never stopped to 
argue. He boldly assumed that, and then by its utter- 
ances every opinion must be hewed and squared. 

We shall make a great mistake, however, if we get 
the impression that he studied the Bible chiefly as a 
controversialist. It was not so much an armory 
whence to draw weapons as a well whence to draw 
waters for a thirsty soul. The daily draught was a 
refreshing and delight. Out of the divine testimonies 
he got help and comfort in every case. If he found 
himself after a day of hard labor with half an hour of 
spare time before an evening meal or meeting, he would 
seize the inspired volume as eagerly as he would a let- 
ter from home, and some sweet promise, read perhaps 
for the thousandth time, would bring a smile to his 
face, and put audible praise upon his tongue. 

Nor was it only the doctrinal and devotional por- 
tions of Scripture that he pored over and enjoyed. 
The prophecies were a mine of wealth that he dug into 
as a treasure-seeker might dig into beds of precious 
ore. Along their dimmest passages, and in their ob- 
scurest recesses, he traced the footprints of his Lord. 
Christ coming or Christ to come again, and the fortunes 
of His cause between the first and second advents, he 
saw promised and presaged at every step. And it is 
but just to say that while all might not accept his inter- 

John E. Vussar. *5 



170 UNCLti JOHN VASSAR. 

pretations of prophecy, or the views to which they led, 
none could doubt that his knowledge of their letter was 
extensive and exact. 

This exhaustive acquaintance with God's word 
could not fail to make itself felt. Men saw that he 
was not dogmatically insisting on his own notions or 
impressions or conceits. They were asked not to lis- 
ten to him or to believe him, but the message which 
God had sent. The very reverence with which he 
treated the message showed that he regarded it as God- 
sent. And when he came with comfort, though the 
manner might be human, the matter was divine. It 
was not the weak, uncertain words of earth he spoke ; 
it was the strong, infallible words of heaven. Such 
utterances must carry weight. What man may think 
or feel is perhaps of little consequence ; what God 
says is of vital importance to a thoughtful soul. 

Perhaps the quality that would be noticed soonest 
and most deeply felt was the man's burning zeal. It 
glowed in the awful earnestness with which he pressed 
his personal appeals. We use the word " awful" advis- 
edly and deliberately, for no other would be as exact. 

The Watchman, of Boston, in an article by Dr. 
Gordon, thus refers to it in this story — a story so char- 
acteristic that any one who knew Uncle John would 
have inferred that he was the man referred to had no 
name been given. 

" While laboring with me a few years since in Bos- 
ton, he wished to call on a Christian gentleman who 
was living at one of our fashionable boarding-houses. 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. ,171 

A young friend of mine who went with him to show 
him the place reported what occurred. While waiting 
in the parlor to be shown to the gentleman s room, he 
opened conversation with a very fashionable and 
proud-looking lady who was sitting in the room. With 
great concern he began to urge the necessity of the 
new birth and immediate acceptance of Christ upon 
her. She was thunderstruck, and protested that she 
did not believe in any of those things. Then followed 
a most fervent appeal, texts of Scripture, warnings 
against rejecting Christ, the certainty of a wrath to 
come for any found in impenitence, till at last my 
friend said he was fairly alarmed at the boldness of 
the assault. Suddenly the gentleman came in for 
whom he was waiting and called him out. The friend 
sat watching from behind his newspaper for the effect 
of the interview. In a moment the lady's husband 
came in. ' There has been an old man here talking with 
me about religion,' she said. ' Why did you not shut 
him up ? ' he asked gruffly. ' He is one of those per- 
sons you can t shut up,' washer reply. ' If I had been 
here,' he said, ' I would have told him very quickly to 
go about his business.' 'If you had seen him you 
would have thought he was about his business, ' was her 
answer. No truer tribute could be paid to him than 
that. Never did I see one who could ' close in with 
a soul,' as the old Puritans used to phrase it, like him." 
See the same trait shine out in such an incident as 
Rev. S. B. Almy, of Mattewan, one of Uncle John's 
dear friends in the younger ministry, relates. 



172 UNCLE JOHN VASSAfi. 

" In the winter of 1872, while at home on a brief visit 
from Florida, he spent a few days with the pastor of a 
Presbyterian Church in his native county. Some be- 
gan to be concerned about their salvation, and special 
meetings were appointed at the church. One day the 
minister was taken ill. There was an appointment out 
for preaching that very night. Nine miles Uncle John 
walked through snow and slush to get some one to fill 
the gap, and then kept on with his calls from house to 
house to get the people out to hear the Word. 

" This is the way he spent the vacation given him to 
rest in ! Well might his pastor say on the day of his 
burial, ' More truthfully than any other man I ever 
knew he might have said, " the zeal of Thine house 
hath eaten me up." ' " 

Nor was this all. He had about him a remarkable 
persistency of purpose. 

Zeal is sometimes flashy and fitful. It is good for 
a dash, but not for a siege. It takes hold well, but it 
does not keep hold. In the heathery turf of Scotland 
there is a plant whose roots run but a little distance 
and then terminate as squarely as if they had been 
chopped off. The superstitious country folks around 
assert that great medicinal virtue originally dwelt in 
these roots, and that to destroy it the great enemy of 
man once bit them off. A quaint fancy, of course, but 
something very like it is the fact in many a life. Good 
plans are frustrated ; praiseworthy schemes issue in 
nothing ; pious activities result in failure, because an 
inconstant will is allowed to bite them off. 



WEAPONS IN THE FIGHT. 173 

Uncle John's tenacity was wonderful. It was hard 
to shake him off. We entered a house of our congre- 
gation with him one day where we met a young man 
from Virginia who had come North to attend school. 
The others present being Christians, Uncle John soon 
fastened all the conversation upon him. We never saw 
him so press and push a soul. He had found a lost 
sheep, and seemed determined, " shepherd's dog" 
that he was, to keep at it till he had worried it home. 
Again and again we feared that he was crowding too 
hard and too far. But he had been out on many such 
a service before, and what he was about he knew very 
well. Before the house was left, a sincere penitent 
was on his knees pleading for mercy, and was soon re- 
joicing in Christ as his portion. Three or four years 
have gone since then, and the one so wrestled with, 
a useful and earnest Christian now, has many a time 
blessed the Lord that he was not given up that day. 

His tact was a characteristic that should not be 
underestimated or left unnamed. 

" He seldom made a blunder. His knowledge of 
human nature seemed almost intuitive. He read men 
at a glance, and pierced the surface of things as by' 
magic. He knew how to approach men, what to say 
to them, and when to have done with them. He 
adapted himself to all classes and conditions when 
talking of Christ. The school-girl or the college pro- 
fessor, the millionaire or the hard-handed son of toil, 
a sailor or a soldier — with equal readiness and skill he 
met them all. His mind was a perfect storehouse of 

I 5* 



174 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

Scripture, and he had a verse on his tongue's end to 
serve him at every time." It must be a very dull man 
whom he could not make to see, a very hard man 
whom he could not make to feel, a very stubborn 
man whom he could not to some extent bend, and a 
very sharp one whom he could not match. When any 
one attempted to foil him he would head him off by a 
move that might be called a piece of strategy. " On 
one occasion" (this from" Dr. G. M. Stone) " he went 
to visit a young lady for religious conversation. She 
saw him approaching, and went up stairs to avoid him. 
Uncle John, upon coming in, comprehended the 
situation at a glance, and requested that the door of 
the stairway might be opened. He then knelt at the 
foot of the stairs and sent up a melting petition to God 
in behalf of the person named." 

He was equal to any emergency that might arise. 
If any imagined that, because his heart was so ten- 
der, he could be easily outgeneralled that, because he 
was guileless and unsuspecting, he could be taken at a 
disadvantage and put in an awkward place or plight, 
they would quickly find out their mistake. The Chris- 
tain Intelligencer must be held responsible for this story 
— a story which illustrates this feature in his character, 
and is too good to be lost : 

" While laboring in the Army of the Potomac he 
was called out of bed one night by a messenger, who 
represented that a soldier in a certain tent was in great 
distress of mind. On reaching the tent indicated he 
found several officers seated around a keg of beer which 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. 175 

had been brought from Washington, and he was in- 
vited to join them and take a drink. Taking in the 
situation at a glance, he told them he could not do it 
without first asking the blessing of God. So, grasping 
the arm of the principal man, he fell on his knees and 
poured out an ardent prayer for the company, after 
which they were glad to let him go. The story got 
out, and for months afterward one of those men could 
hardly show his face without being asked about the 
prayer-meeting they had set up. Uncle John was too 
much for them." 

Another who tells the story says that there were 
two prayers, and singing and exhortation beside. 

This other trait was most remarkably manifest in 
the man : Under all inequalities of circumstance or 
condition lie saw a soul to be saved, and realized its 
worth. When he went to call on the President of the 
United States he paid him the respect due to his high 
office, but did not let go of his hand till he had spoken 
to him of the Lord Jesus and put to him most courte- 
ously the question that was ever on his lips. 

When he was introduced to Brigham Young in his 
Salt Lake City home he made the same appeal, and 
pressed the same searching inquiry on his soul. A 
distinguished Liberal Religionist of our day has taunt- 
ingly said that " evangelicals" had shown a remarkable 
indifference about his "salvation." Once only had 
anybody ever exhorted him to repentance, and then he 
himself drew the exhortation out. He never could have 
met John Vassar and afterward have truthfully said that. 



176 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

But Uncle John was just as solicitous for a private 
in the army, a negro in his cabin, a child in the Sun- 
day-school. There was no difference between them in 
his eyes. 

This is the story which his friend Rev. Mr. Hazard 
tells : ;< Uncle John and myself occupied adjoining 
rooms in a boarding-house near the Capitol at Wash- 
ington in the winter of 1867. On going down stairs 
to breakfast one morning I found him standing there 
in earnest conversation with one of the colored ser- 
vants, and it needed but a hasty glance to see that he 
was urging a most tender and affecting appeal for im- 
mediate attention to the concerns of the soul. Class 
or color was of little consequence to him. He was a 
' winner of souls,' and I doubt if he left one his equal 
in this land when he passed away." 

He was a man of deep and tender sympathy. 

No matter what indifference, ingratitude, or even 
imposition he encountered, nothing could freeze over, 
nay, even chill, the generous sensibilities of his soul. 
Suffering of any sort would touch him to the quick. 
Nor would he show it only by words and tears. A 
sympathy that had nothing but sentiment in it he rated 
cheap. He was emotional, but he was practical as 
well. Pity did not glisten in his eye and drop from 
his tongue only. It sent his feet running on errands, 
and his hand helping wherever there was need. When 
Dr. Tyng had him at the Gospel Tent work in New 
York City he carried not only the Bread of Life to starv- 
ing souls, but many a literal loaf to hungry mouths. 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. 177 

Having access to our lines in war time to an extent 
which few enjoyed, he would fairly load himself down as 
he returned from Washington or Alexandria with par- 
cels for the men. More than once he went from " the 
front" to the national capital when they were fifty 
miles apart to get some delicacies for suffering men, 
walking both ways, nor counted it a hardship as he 
trudged along. 

In a time of affliction his heart went right out to- 
ward the smitten and sorrowing. He had gone 
through sore straits of anguish himself, and when 
others were in them he went to their sides to weep 
with those that wept and whisper of the Comforter. 

While the body of Dr. Babcock lay in the house 
awaiting burial, Uncle John called, and was taken by 
the family into the room when the dear old pastor 
rested as if asleep. Approaching the casket, and look- 
ing down upon the face which death had so little 
changed, he exclaimed, " My Father, my Father, the 
chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." Then 
recalling the time of his conversion and the guiding 
counsels given by these now still lips, he said, " Under 
God I owe all that I am to this man. ' ' The prayer 
that followed we can imagine, not describe. The 
household group, bowed with him, say that while it 
was being offered they got such glimpses of the com- 
ing glory as lifted them on eagle's wings, and brought 
the deep peace of paradise very near. 

Many a reader of this book will remember some 
similar scene. When the shadow of bereavement hung 



178 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

heavily over the heart and home, when the coffin or 
the new grave seemed somehow to have come between 
their souls and heaven, he carried them up to his Lord 
so lovingly, and laid them so feelingly in the Everlast- 
ing Arms, that the sorrow was half lifted and the 
shadows more than half swept away. 

He was a man of marked humility. 

We are quite sure that no one ever heard him utter 
a boastful word. 'Unto me, who am less than the 
least of all saints , is this grace given;" this was the 
spirit in which he lived his life and did his work. He 
never sought to put himself forward or take the lead. 
No chaplain, preacher, pastor whom he was aiding ever 
felt that Uncle John was seeking to take the command 
or put the properly commissioned leader back. He 
was particularly careful to magnify the office of the 
Christian minister. In the agencies for bringing a lost 
world back to God he always put the living preacher 
first. Nor did he parade his personal piety, nor trum- 
pet his attainments in the Christian life. Judged by 
all the standards that we know any thing about, the 
mark he reached was very high ; but no one would 
have learned that from his lips. 

Dr. Stone says, " I once asked him what he thought 
of the doctrine of perfect sanctification in this life. 
His answer was, ' I do not doubt we may have high 
experiences of Christ's love, and great degrees of sub- 
mission and joy, but the difficulty is to keep there.' 
Many times since I have felt the wisdom and spiritual 
insight of his words." 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. 179 

So anxious was he to avoid even the appearance of 
egotism that it was difficult to get him to speak of 
details and results of work which many, when he was 
talking publicly and privately, would have been pleased 
to hear. 

And there was no affectation in this. There is 11 
assumed humility which is more disgusting and unbear- 
able than outspoken, arrogant conceit. Any thing but 
a sanctimonious, abject air put on for effect's sake ; a 
depreciation of self for the purpose of getting higher 
compliments. You can laugh at overweening vanity ; 
the other thing excites contempt and scorn. Men saw 
that Uncle John's humility was genuine. Sincerity 
shone out in every word. He had no selfish ends to 
accomplish. He had no ambitious projects to carry 
out. The test he had to stand was searching. When 
a man emerges from obscurity to be recognized as a 
positive force in the religious movements of his age, 
the retaining of an unmagnified self-estimate is difficult 
indeed. But here was a man who bore the test. Let 
others say what they might, he knew that he was just 
John Vassar, nothing more and nothing less. Self- 
seeking of every sort he scorned ; nay, more, he ab- 
horred it from his very heart. All who came in con- 
tact with him saw that he was not striving for honor 
or grasping for money ; he had just one object, and that 
was to save their souls. 

This enumeration of characteristics would be incom- 
plete if we failed to mention the broad and catholic 
spirit of the man. 



180 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

Denominationally he was a Baptist. The peculiar 
views and practices of that branch of the Saviour's 
church he intelligently and conscientiously held. In 
the proper place he would maintain and defend them. 
He refused, however, again and again, to leave the ser- 
vice of the Tract Society to engage in purely denomi- 
national work. He felt he could reach more men on 
its union basis than he could if laboring in the interests 
of a particular sect. And to turn men to righteousness 
was more important in hie estimation than the gather- 
ing of them around this peculiar standard or that. He 
rendered a loyal allegiance to the ensign of his own 
particular corps, but the one flag on which the cross 
was blazoned he would lift over all. Around that first 
he would rally men, and then afterward have them 
go into such church relations as each might choose. 

This being his great aim, he went . among all 
churches holding an evangelical faith, little caring what 
the name might be. And we doubt whether the sharp- 
est-eared or the keenest-eyed critic would have detected 
the slightest difference in the testimony which he bore. 
One message he everywhere voiced. One need he em- 
phasized. One Helper he pointed out. And it might 
be added that the style of working and the results wit- 
nessed were everywhere much the same — the same in 
kind at least if not in measure. We have in this vol- 
ume statements from representative men in the Metho- 
dist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Congregational, 
Episcopal, and Reformed churches, touching this man 
and his labors, and so much alike are the opinions 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. 181 

which they pass, and the affection they express, that 
all of them might have been written by any single 
hand. 

The strongest points in the man's character have 
now been sketched. It will seem like a poor, dull pic- 
ture to those who knew the original when he was at his 
best. It may help, however, to show what made him 
such a power. Give to any man such qualifications in 
any such degree, and he will make himself felt. Noth- 
ing so gets hold upon the world, nothing so keeps hold, 
as an unselfish, consecrated life. 

One who has furnished some of the incidents men- 
tioned here in a private note says : " You and I, and 
all who knew the man, have before us an evidence of 
the truth of the Gospel and a proof of its power. 
Whatever else may be quibbled about or argued away, 
the power which kept that man going, doing, praying, 
that cannot be disposed of either by logic or a sneer." 

Mrs. John H. Ketcham, who was familiar with his 
army work, as well as many other labors, writing from 
Washington and speaking for herself and the General, 
says : 

" Wherever his name was known it was the 
synonym for godliness— that is, Christlikeness ; and 
• greater honor hath no man than this. ' 

" He will always live in the 'hearts of those who 
knew him, and who beheld in him one without guile 
or thought of self, who gave his life to men and to the 
Master. 

" Our recollections of him are of the pleasantest, 

John E. Vasiar. 



182 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

and we are glad that the loveliness of his character and 
the grandeur of a life so full of toil and sacrifice are to 
be set forth/' 

It is very evident that men of this stamp are the 
gieat need in all our Christian work. The age is posi- 
tive, active, driving, and its wickedness is of a similar 
type. Men of God who are going to meet it must 
match it in resoluteness and aggressiveness. The 
question once asked by the Master must be the ques- 
tion of those who follow in his train, " Wist ye not 
that I must be about my Father's business?" The 
motto for the hour is, '* At it, and ever at it, till He 
comes." The prevalent piety is not of such a tone. 
Most of it is of a lower grade. It is decent, moderate, 
quiet. Spiritual indolence is in these times the worst 
foe our holy religion has to encounter. It is not that 
men openly reject and make war upon it, but that they 
drowsily sleep around its altars. It is that they are 
content with such paltry satisfactions and tinsel com- 
forts as the senses can bribe them with, heedless of 
what bids them claim communion with the skies. It 
is that eternity has no awfulness to them, life no depth 
of meaning, enjoyment no obligations, bereavement no 
solemnity, suffering and sorrow no prophetic sugges- 
tions of an hereafter, conscience no echo of God, Christ 
no enrapturing beauty, holiness no pledge of heaven." 
Next to the Holy Spirit in its sevenfold energies the 
great want of the church is godly men : men girded 
with awful zeal ; men who beg no favors of worldly 
policy ; men who have the staunch, uncompromising 



WEAPONS IN THE EIGHT. 183 

sincerity of old confessors, and yet whose speech is the 
benediction of charity. Men who will thrust in the 
unwilling face of darkness all the light of God, and 
whom no disappointments can palsy, no opposition 
embitter, and no misgivings keep back. Given such 
men, and they will have influence. Skeptics, mor- 
alists, easy-going religionists, will feel it. They may 
not understand it, they may not like it, but there 
will be something real about it ; and, after all, reality 
is what this world wants. When it sees a man who 
acts as if this earth was a show and a dream, and his 
home over in " the blue eternities," somehow it will 
feel that he has something which it lacks. Uneasiness 
begins to stir. There is a disposition to say, " After 
all, this is what we want. We are not satisfied. We 
are not happy. We are not at peace. It's all a make- 
believe, a cheat, a lie. Tell us how we can be made 
better, holier ; how we can front God, and look the 
splendors of His judgment in the face." 

We have plenty of machinery for the doing of evan- 
gelistic work, but machinery will accomplish no more 
toward bringing in Christ's kingdom than draining 
sand-deserts would do toward making them fruitful. 
Men of the right stamp — this is the crying want. These 
multiplied, and the cause of the Master might speedily 
move on to those victories which in Scripture are 
prophesied and pledged. 



j8 4 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE VETERAN DISABLED. 

"He holds me when the billows smite, 
I shall not fall. 
If sharp 'tis short, if long 'tis light ; 
He tempers all." 

James Hamilton says that old age is a sort of 
Terra del Fuego, a region where the weather never 
clears. Cloud and drizzle darken and dampen many 
of its days, and there is little reason to expect that it 
will be otherwise while life shall last. 

Uncle John could hardly be called old when he be- 
gan to break. Before he had seen sixty years infirmi- 
ties were pressing heavily, and thereafter he saw few 
hours altogether free from pain. It is not strange that 
it was so. The only wonder is that his bodily vigor 
was retained unimpaired so long. Had he not come 
of sturdy stock he could not have borne the strain of 
the previous five-and-twenty years. His unflagging 
spirit constantly overlooked the body, or overestimated 
and overtaxed its powers. Nature will ultimately ex- 
act the penalty for such violation of her laws. No 
matter how good the object in the attainment of which 
strength is overtasked, the effect is not likely to be 
averted or escaped. God wrought no miracle to save 



THE VETERAN DISABLED. 185 

his servant from the consequences of his exhausting 
and almost superhuman work. 

For the last three or four years he was much of the 
time really unfit to keep about. Mind and body had 
been kept on the tightest stretch. They now needed 
rest. But rest was precisely that of which he would 
not hear. His soul was as alert and eager as in his 
prime. Flesh and blood must serve it still. The feet 
must not stop running if they were tired. Let him 
keep right on till he dropped in the harness. That 
was the way he wanted it arranged. His Lord did not 
so order it. 

A year before he entered on the rest that re- 
maineth, the physical system got so utterly out of 
order that it stopped short, unable longer to obey the 
still resolute spirit that sought to urge it on. 

The last public work undertaken was at Minden, 
Montgomery County, N. Y., the following account of 
which is given by Rev. J. H. Weber : 

" In the summer of 1877, while visiting Coxsackie 
on the Hudson, I heard much of the labors which 
Uncle John had performed there the previous winter. 
It immediately occurred to me that he was just the 
man I had been praying for and looking for to assist 
me in meetings on my own field. 

" Arrangements were made with the Tract Society, 
and on the third of December a letter came telling me 
to meet him at Fort Plain. When the train arrived 
the first man to step off was Uncle John. On the way 
to my house I saw he was sick, and determined to 

16* 



186 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

make it as comfortable and easy as possible by pro- 
viding a warm room to stop in by night, and horse 
to carry him around by day. He wanted to start out 
that very afternoon, but I persuaded him to rest. 

' The next day we started out from house to house, 
and a day or two later he said to me, ' Brother Weber, 
we have not got hold of the right string yet ; but keep 
on praying, and the Lord will show it to us yet, before 
long.' That day I had a call for a funeral service at 
Bethel, and when he heard of it he appeared to feel 
impressed that the Lord would open the way there, 
and that that would be the place to take hold. During 
the funeral I was convinced that the Spirit was working 
there beyond a doubt, and so appointed meetings for 
the following week. The first night Uncle John did 
not get there, as he had a meeting fixed for else- 
where ; but when an invitation was given nine rose for 
prayer. 

" The next night he arrived and appeared to be in 
his element at once. He prayed, he sang, he talked, 
and the whole congregation seemed melted into tears. 
In his visitations no shop or store or house was passed. 

" In one yard he saw a man of more than seventy 
chopping wood. Uncle John stopped and began to 
question him about his hope. He frankly avowed that 
he was a spiritualist, that he did not believe the Bible, 
but added that he was willing Uncle John should do 
all the good to others that he could. A few more 
words of entreaty were pressed on him, and then we 
passed along, Uncle John praying that God would 



THE VETERAN DISABLED. 187 

'save that dear old man.' To-day he is a consistent 
Christian, and a member of the Lutheran church. 

" Into the stores and shops he would often run for 
a few minutes, and talk to those there found, and 
sometimes offer prayer. One man since his death has 
said to me, ' I don't believe that I should ever have 
been converted if he had not come into my shop and 
prayed for me and plead with me as he did.' 

" Sometimes a group of thoughtless or reckless 
young men would come into the evening service, and 
by talking and laughing disturb the meeting. Soon 
as anything of the kind was begun, Uncle John would 
quietly move that way, and getting into the knot 
would drop down and offer such a prayer as would 
shame them, and sometimes solemnize every soul. 

" So for two weeks the work went on, till the last 
night came that he was to be with us. Such words of 
encouragement to the converts, such exhortations to 
the ungodly, it seems to me I never heard, nor do I 
expect ever to hear their like again. When the ad- 
dress was finished he fell upon his knees and offered 
the last prayer we were ever to listen to from his lips. 
When the service was over all crowded around him, 
anxious for one more grasp of his hand. To each 
there was a word of personal advice and a ' God bless 
you,' to which many a heart sent back a like response. 

" When we parted the next morning, he said, 
' The Lord be with you, my dear brother, and with 
this people ; and remember old Uncle John Vassar 
sometimes in your prayers.' 



1 38 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

When he reached his home, with the last days of 
1877, the labors of love which for more than a quarter 
of a century he had pushed so unremittingly were sub- 
stantially at an end. For more than six months he 
lay entirely prostrate, passing through frequent par- 
oxysms of pain that were pitiful to behold, and that 
medical skill was powerless to prevent or greatly 
lighten. When midsummer came he began to rally, 
and for a time it seemed not impossible that he might 
yet do a little light work in the vineyard of the Lord. 
He got upon the streets once more, and filled occasion- 
ally his seat in the sanctuary on the Sabbath or in the 
social meetings of the week. His once quick step had 
grown slow, but his voice was clear, and something of 
the old smile again lit up his face. It was only the 
brief brightening of the lamp, however, preparatory to 
the going out. 



HONORABLY DISCHARGED. 189 



CHAPTER XL 
HONORABLY DISCHARGED. 

" His soul to Him who gave it rose ; 
God lexi it to its long repose, 

Its glorious rest. 
And though the warrior's sun has set, 
Its light shall linger round us yet, , 

Bright, radiant, blest." 

When fruit is altogether ripe it drops readily from 
the bough. Till then it clings with a tenacious hold. 
Uncle John did not at once let go of life. In spite of 
sufferings that at times were terrible, he was in no 
hurry to shake off mortality and have the battle done. 
Not only was the life instinct strong, but he saw much 
yet remaining to be done, and in the doing of it he 
would fain bear a part. 

In the early autumn of 1878 the tokens of im- 
provement noticed in the previous chapter were quite 
marked. He regarded them as indications to buckle 
the harness on again, and began to lay plans for the 
weeks ahead. 

Under date of October 1st, to Rev. Mr. Owen, of 
Wyoming County, N. Y., he thus writes : 

" Dear Brother Owen : I am getting better every 
day, and can work some. Please write to New York 
to the Secretary, Rev. G. L. Shearer, and see if I can- 



i 9 o UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

not come to you at once. I think the Lord will work 
for His glory in your place. How can I reach you, 
and what will be the railroad fare ?' ' 

October 9th he sends another postal, reading 
thus : 

11 The Society and my doctor both say I cannot 
come to you ; but I want to come and see the salva- 
tion of our God once more. Send me a card and tell 
me the route." 

The Society now interposed its authority, and per- 
emptorily forbade him to engage in any kind of work. 
They saw the ruling passion so asserting itself, and 
were so fearful it might hurry him into engagements 
that he was utterly unfit to fill that they even requir- 
ed him for his own protection to sign a paper obli- 
gating himself for the present to keep still. The en- 
forced idleness was painful to him, and but for the 
giving of such a promise he would probably have made 
some feeble and futile attempt to gird on the old re- 
sponsibilities. 

October came toward its close, and though weak 
he was tolerably comfortable. With the last days of 
the month the Prophetic Conference was to meet in 
the church of his good friend, Dr. S. H. Tyng, Jr. He 
felt sure he might venture to attend this gathering, 
and the family, seeing his anxiety, assented to his plans. 
Accompanied by his eldest son, he went to New York, 
visited again those'with whom he had been so long as- 
sociated in the Tract House, and spent a pleasant Sab- 
bath among dear Christian friends. The meetings of 



HONORABLY DISCHARGED, 191 

the Conference in Holy Trinity, where he had enjoyed 
some blessed seasons previously, were to him a great 
delight. He was a firm believer in the general doc- 
trines there discussed, and had been for many years. 
His saintly father had held to "that blessed hope," 
and to Uncle John it was just as sweet. Concerning it 
we are not here called upon to speak. Only this in 
passing should be said, that if the doctrine — as is 
sometimes urged — does relax the hand of pious effort, 
and weaken faith in the Gospel's power to save, it cer- 
tainly did not produce in him its natural fruits. 

This reunion with old brethren and friends seemed 
to act like a tonic. He was more like himself than he 
had been for months. Dr. Tyng says that as he went 
out from the church for the last time he looked up at 
it, and thinking of the great numbers who in it, or 
through its services, had been led to Christ, he lifted up 
his hands and said, " God bless the dear old soul-trap." 

Inelegant the term, but blessedly expressive. 

For a week or more after reaching home he seemed 
better than before his trip. He was able to attend 
one or two of the evening meetings in his own church, 
and those who listened to him said that almost the old 
fire and fervor appeared to flash. Then came a most 
distressing relapse. All the favorable symptoms dis- 
appeared. The two elder boys— one from New York, 
and one from St. Louis — were summoned home. 

Three weeks of intense suffering followed, com- 
pletely exhausting his little remaining strength. There 
were no spiritual raptures such as many supposed 



192 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

would be given him on a dying bed. As the body- 
wasted, the quick, active mind declined. The strong, 
earnest spirit seemed to share in the prostration of the 
earthly house it so long had lived in. The mortal 
tabernacle was falling, and the immortal tenant felt 
the jar. 

We might have wished it otherwise, but the Lord 
makes no mistakes. It is best to say about it or look 
at it as Paul did when he said, " The good and accept- 
able and perfect will of God." Even had he been 
granted the most triumphant death-bed, that could 
have added little to the testimony which had for thirty 
years been borne. 

The last day came. It was Friday, December 6th. 
His faithful medical attendant, Dr. A. B. Harvey, 
came in to make his usual call. For more than a 
quarter of a century he had been the family physician, 
the firm friend, the loving Christian brother. His 
practised eye saw that the end was not far away, and 
a few hours later he came again. Then frankly he told 
the sinking man that the parting time had come. 
Tenderly he recalled their past experiences, joyfully 
he spoke of their common hopes, tearfully he bade him 
good-by till they should meet again in the house of 
many mansions. The departing veteran seemed sur- 
prised. He had not thought the change so near. 
Even when so plainly told that he was at the river's 
brink and soon must go across, only partially did he 
appear to realize the fact, and parted with the doctor 
as if fully expecting to see him the following day. 



HONORABLY DISCHARGED. 193 

In the afternoon the household became convinced 
that only a few hours remained. All gathered around 
his bed — the wife, who for twenty-four years had been 
his companion and counsellor, Walter, Albert, Hattie, 
Johnnie — the living children of his love. He knew 
them all, and seemed pleased that they were near. 
That was about all he appeared to note. The brief 
December day darkened into night. The group of 
watchers was enlarged by the arrival of a sister, a 
niece, and one or two other friends. Gently, pain- 
lessly, but silently, he was passing into the presence of 
the holy God. An hour before the end came the lips 
moved, and the wife, bending over him, caught the 
word " farewell — farewell." Once again there was a 
faint whisper. It was " Hallelujah !" just that, and 
nothing more. 

A little after seven o'clock the last breath fluttered 
from between the whitening lips. The soldier had 
received his discharge. The victor had gone to get 
and wear his crown. 

One day, his voice was heard in Israel 
Amid her bannered legions, crying Cheer ! 
To God's elected hosts in holy war ; 
Another, and he dropped his tempered blade, 
And hushed his battle-cry, his warning note, 
And trailed his standard in the dust of death. 
But 'twas a glorious exchange for him ! 
His sword laid down, he took the sceptre up ; 
His call to arms, changed to the victor's song ; 
His war-worn banner, to triumphant robes ; 
His dying bed, to an undying throne. 

The roof which sheltered his dying head was the 

John E. Vassar. 1 7 



194 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

gift of some loving Christian- friends. He left nothing 
besides to the widow and the children, save a spotless 
name, and a record of heroic devotion and saintly sac- 
rifice which this generation has yet to see surpassed. 



On Monday afternoon, December 9th, those who 
loved the man bore his body to its rest. The day was 
dark with storm. Early there was a heavy snow-fall, 
later came on a drenching rain. The church on Mill 
Street nevertheless was filled. Taking into account 
the condition of the streets, it was as large a funeral 
gathering as Poughkeepsie has often seen. The city 
of his birth and lifelong residence kept a sacred me- 
morial day. Uncle John's favorite Psalm, the one 
hundred and third, was read by his long-time friend, 
Dr. Stone, of Tarrytown. 

Dr. Kendrick, his pastor, then dwelt briefly on the 
man's career. '• If I were preaching a funeral sermon 
over Uncle John," he said, " this should be my text : 
1 The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.' 

" If he had a coat of arms, the proper device for it 
would have been a burning heart. Though zealous, 
he was not censorious. He lived in a higher sphere of 
spiritual life than his brethren, but he was always most 
patient with them. ' He allured to heaven and led 
the way. ' Though his zeal was not properly one-sided 
or narrow, it still took very much the direction of 
anxiety for souls. And his efforts always kept even 
pace with his intense desires. If no opportunities 



HONORABLY DISCHARGED. 195 

offered for doing good, he went in search of them. In 
this respect I have never known his like." 

Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., of New York, followed 
Dr. Kendrick. He said : " I parted with Uncle John 
at the throne of grace ; I expect to meet him next at 
the throne of glory. He was like Bunyan in the origi- 
nality and depth of his experience ; like Harlan Page 
in his personal endeavors ; like Hedley Vicars in his 
soldierly firmness. He might have been a capitalist, 
but he chose to live for Christ. His history will stand 
out as a representation of all unselfishness." 

Rev. Dr. Fulton, of Brooklyn, said : " In this life 
now closed I hear the echoes of that apostolic shout 
of triumph, ' Thanks be unto God who always causeth 
us to triumph in Christ.' Uncle John took no glory 
to himself ; he found in the Lord Jesus the source of 
his power, and the earnest of his victory. He started 
as a humble colporteur.. He grew to be a master in 
Israel. It was in Boston I first saw him. There was 
a meeting in Tremont Temple, and God was there. 
Uncle John was in the city, and having a spare hour, 
dropped in. I obtained his help for a while. How 
he took hold ! I hardly saw him, but how he did pull 
sinners out of the fire ! Day after day he brought in 
trophies and laid them at the Master's feet. Once I 
got him on a Sunday afternoon to take my place in the 
pulpit at the ' Temple ' and address the crowds that 
filled those seats. It was one of the most impressive 
discourses I ever heard. 

" In the school-houses and country churches of 



196 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

New England his face has been seen. Over its bleak 
hills and through its valleys his feet have carried him 
as he sought the wandering sheep. He is now with 
Jesus, and is crowned a hero evermore." 

Rev. Dr. Stevenson and Rev. George L. Shearer, 
Secretaries of the Tract Society, were on the platform, 
and the former spoke of the traits of character which 
made Uncle John " the most laborious and the most 
useful Christian layman of his age." He was declared 
to have been " undisguisedly frank and straightfor- 
ward, fearless in reproof, unflinching in maintaining 
the right, gently firm in reclaiming the erring, mag- 
netic in action, fervent in prayer, convincing in argu- 
ment, resistless in appeal, wise in all necessary worldly 
wisdom, undisturbed in emergencies, and, above all 
and beyond all, had all these characteristics so suffused 
and energized and directed by the Spirit of Christ as 
to make him the most successful lay missionary of 
modern days." 

Rev. J. Hyatt Smith uttered the closing words. 
He said : " John Vassar illustrated more fully than 
any man whom I ever knew the apostle's ideal, ' dili- 
gent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.' 
Tenderly and touchingly he dwelt upon the intimacies 
and memories of thirty years, and the ties which during 
those years had not only been preserved unweakened, 
but had steadily grown stronger. 

Dr. Wheeler, of Poughkeepsie, pastor of the Pres- 
byterian Church, then led in prayer, thanking God for 
the man, and the grace that had made him what he 



HONORABLY DISCHARGED. 197 

was ; and then the choir, as a fitting close to what had 
been a joyful and triumphant service, sang : 

" I know not the hour when my Lord shall come 
To take me away to His own dear home ; 
But I know that His presence will lighten the gloom, 
And that will be glory for me." 

After the singing, hundreds passed around to look 
upon the well-known face — " a face that, despite the 
storm, despite suffering, despite death, was in perfect 
peace." 

It was a mixed company that passed by the casket 
for a parting look. The most honored citizens of the 
community were in it, and every intermediate social 
grade between them and the poorest blacks, and by all 
he was sincerely mourned. 

The afternoon was far spent when his beloved 
brethren, Richard Brittain, Thomas Hull, Stephen 
Hull, R. E. Lansing, Christian Mattern, James 
Smiley, and Adam Caire, as bearers, laid the body in 
the receiving tomb on the Hudson's banks, resting in 
the blessed trust expressed in Christian prayer for 
ages, that " through the grave and gate of death" he 
should " pass to a joyful resurrection." 

Another has sweetly voiced the feelings with which 
we left the worn-out tabernacle for a little season 
there. 

From north and south, from east and west, 

Bring flowers, a wreath to twine 
Above the soldier laid to rest, 

This friend of thine and mine. 
17* 



198 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

O'er hill and vale, with tireless feet, 

Glad messages he bore — 
The story of the cross so sweet : 

He told it o'er and o'er. 

That voice is hushed in silence now, 

The folded hands at rest ; 
Soft pillowed is the weary brow, 

In dreamless slumber blest. 

Then twine a wreath of sweetest flowers, 

And place it o'er his brow : 
The sadness and the grief are ours ; 
He's '•' more than conqueror" now. 

M. H. W. 
Southfield, Mass., Dec. 17, 1878. 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 199 



CHAPTER XII. 
SERVICE REVIEWED. 

" Champion of Jesus— man of God, 
Servant of Christ, well done ! 
Thy path of thorns hath now been trod, 
Thy red-cross crown is won." 

The natural limits of this memoir have been already 
reached. The story of this humble, godly, useful life 
has been told, and it might properly be left to go be- 
fore men's eyes without the addition of another line. 

But in Dr. Tyng's and Rev. Mr. Brouer's churches 
in New York, in Dr. Fulton's and J. Hyatt Smith's 
in Brooklyn, in Rev. Mr. Twichell's in Hartford, 
Conn., in Rev. Mr. Holman's, Bunker Hill, Boston, 
and elsewhere, memorial sermons were preached, or 
memorial services held, the Sabbath following the 
burial of Uncle John ; and these unusual, perhaps 
unprecedented, marks of affection and respect demand 
some recognition here. 

Articles, moreover, from at least fifty different 
papers, secular and religious, are in our hands, all pay- 
ing tributes to the man such as fall to the lot of few. 

The material thus furnished has been largely drawn 
on in the preparation of this book. The commemorative 
meetings in the Holy Trinity and North Churches, of 



2oo UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

New York, however, have not been referred to in these 
pages, and several newspaper articles, graphic and 
beautiful, have been left unused, because of an un- 
willingness to insert them in fragments or parts. 

To these tributes let us devote a few leaves. 

Of the gathering in Dr. Tyng's church on Sunday 
evening, December 15th, we have only the meagre 
press report. The night was unpropitious, but the 
attendance was very large. 

'* The pastor in opening the service said that he 
had thought of draping the pulpit in mourning, but 
on reconsideration he concluded that it would be out 
of harmony with the cheerful spirit of him who had 
just entered into his rest. He would therefore ask 
the congregation, instead of lamenting, to unite in 
singing a hymn of triumph — ' Whom have I in heaven 
but Thee.' 

" The singing over, Dr. Tyng remarked that Rob- 
ert Hall, in conversation with Wilberforce, said that 
his idea of heaven was that it was a place of rest. 
Wilberforce replied that his idea was that it was all 
love. In the faith of John Vassar the ideas of rest 
and love were about equally blended. 

" The Rev. G. L. Shearer, of the Tract Society, 
speaking of his army labors, said that he seemed to be 
everywhere where he was most wanted. He marched 
with the soldiers and bore all their hardships, carrying 
often the guns and knapsacks of younger men whose 
strength had failed. In the hospital he was as tender as 
a mother to the wounded men. When too weak to feed 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 201 

themselves, he would feed them, and sometimes take 
a spade and dig their graves. His labors among the 
miners of the West, the Mormons, and the freedmen, 
were also illustrated and described. 

" General Clinton B. Fisk said : In camp and 
march and bivouac, in field and fight and hospital, 
Uncle John was a true soldier of the cross. He was a 
Moody and Sankey combined. His sweet voice could 
be heard at all times sounding the praises of Jesus. 
When, after hard days in the field, the officers would 
say, ' Uncle John, you're tired,' his cheery voice 
would reply in song : 

1 One more day's work for Jesus ! 
How sweet the work has been ! ' 

" Dr. J. D. Fulton said : ' Uncle John Vassar is 
to me the marvel of the age. I know of at least three 
services in memory of the man which are this hour 
being held, and tears are falling over his departure in 
the pine woods of Maine, among the mines and moun- 
tains of California, and the cotton fields and savannas 
of the South. He was a wonderful illustration of re- 
ligion, pure and undefiled. It is with unfeigned grati- 
tude to God that this statement can be made in this 
and any other presence, and have it stand unchallenged 
as an admitted truth. ' The reverend doctor briefly 
referred to the talking gifts of the old veteran, and 
concluded by saying that America would yet venerate 
his name as England venerates the name of Bunyan. 

" At the North Baptist Church the pastor, Rev. J. 



2C2 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

J. Brouer, and Dr. A. S. Patton, gave many facts to 
illustrate his deep humility and thorough consecration. 
Among the reminiscences of his pious and unaffected 
ingenuity in commending Christ to men, Dr. Patton 
referred to having introduced him to the proprietor of 
a noted summer resort who was a pronounced Unitari- 
an. Uncle John broke forth into a strain of eloquent 
admiration of the beauty of the surrounding scenery, 
made all the more charming to him because displaying 
the wisdom and power and goodness of his heavenly 
Father. ' But,' said he, ' His great love, manifested 
in giving His dear Son to die for sinners, eclipses 
everything else.' And then, with tremulous voice and 
tearful eye, he added, ' How the dear Lord Jesus did 
love us ! ' " 

Of the newspaper articles we select three or four 
from representative men in various branches of Christ's 
church. 

The first is from the pen of Rev. A. J. Gordon, 
D.D., of the Clarendon Street Church, Boston. 

" The record of John E. Vassar's death will awaken 
little comment, perhaps, in the world ; but I venture 
to say that it marks a welcome into the presence of 
Christ in Paradise such as few saints have received in 
modern times. I am sure that hundreds will concur 
with me in the opinion that since the days of Harlan 
Page the world has had few, if any, such workers for 
Christ as this dear man of God. His zeal and conse- 
cration were so intense, indeed, that it astonished 
moderate Christians, and often compelled him to hear 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 203 

even from the lips of Christ's professed disciples the 
charge, ' Thou art beside thyself. ' But often as he 
met that reproof it never offended him. His reply 
was ever that of the great apostle : ' For whether we 
be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or whether we be 
sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ con- 
straineth us.' Those of us who knew him intimately 
know how blessedly sane he was on all high themes 
of divine love and holy obedience to Christ Jesus 
the Saviour ; how rational he was when judged by the 
text, 'For me to live is Christ.' He was eccentric 
only as the orbit of the sun is eccentric to that of a 
wandering star. He kept the orbit in which Christ 
his Master had put him so steadily and so un- 
swervingly that easy-going, half-hearted Christians were 
amazed and perplexed. Indeed, far beyond any man 
whom I ever knew, was it true of him that his citi- 
zenship was in heaven ; and so filled was he with 
the glory and the power of the heavenly life, that to 
many he seemed like a foreigner speaking an un- 
known language. 

" But how good it was to be with him, and to be 
kindled by the intense ardor of his consecration ! 

" If any one would like to know whether there is 
any thing practical in living in the power of ' that 
blessed hope,' looking daily for the return of the Lord 
Jesus from heaven, let this life answer. The immi- 
nence of Christ's coming, the possibility of living to 
see the Lord appearing in glory, was with him a daily 
inspiration and a most powerful motive. Often have 



2o 4 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

I heard him speak of this theme, and express the long- 
ing that all Christian might 'love His appearing.' 
From waiting on earth, he has gone to wait in Para- 
dise. 

" Farewell, dear man of God. Hundreds of Chris- 
tians, while sorrowing that they shall see thy face no 
more for the present, will bless God, as long as they 
live, for the quickening and inspiration which they 
received from thy devoted life." 

Rev. John W. Harding, of Longmeadow, Mass., 
contributes this equally appreciative sketch : 

" Multitudes who have been greatly indebted for 
spiritual help to this beloved disciple tenderly lament 
his departure, and rejoice in his glorious welcome to 
the nearer presence of his Lord. Soldiers who wore 
the blue and gray ; Christian- and Sanitary-Commis- 
sion men and women ; many repenting sinners and 
returning backsliders ; others to whom he has been a 
son of consolation in their poverty and affliction ; many 
wavering ones whom he has brought to decision ; many 
pastors whom he has edified and instructed in needed 
points of spiritual experience and pastoral deficiency — 
rise up now, with swift accord, to call him blessed. 

" What a good fight was his ! Despised, rebuffed, 
persecuted, he held right on, meekly and joyfully, in 
his simple, earnest, faithful way, his little worn Testa- 
ment in hand, his single eye fixed on Jesus, Master, 
Saviour of lost souls ; his lips moving, even when no 
voice was heard, in unceasing prayer ; ready to break 
forth in some familiar song ; his spiritual intuitions, 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 205 

quick to discern the real soul-needs of others, and just 
so quick to impart in searching, yet loving, words* the 
remedy. 

r< Uncle John, while most persistent in seeking 
after souls, was at the same time the humblest of men. 
He esteemed ministers very highly in love, for their 
work's sake. It has rejoiced many a pastor's heart to 
know how he was praying, and getting others to pray, 
for the success of the next sermon, and to look from 
the pulpit into his earnest, tearful, observant eye, 
taking in every word with such appreciative interest, 
glancing over the congregation to measure if he could 
the effect of the discourse, his prayers meanwhile going 
up unceasingly for particular souls. 

" Rebuffs, coldness, insults, were nothing, save 
that they made him sad for others' sake. He passed 
on to another house, and soon forgot the momentary 
sting or smart. No harshness could quench the ardor 
of his affection. No one had any need to ask his for- 
giveness. It had already beamed in joy over the re- 
turning sinner, not for his own, but for Jesus' sake. 

" It was my inestimable privilege in the earlier part 
of my ministry to sit at the feet of Uncle John as he 
taught more effective methods of pastoral work in the 
care of souls. I met him for the first time at the rail- 
road station one lovely day in April, he having come 
to spend a week with me in pastoral visitation. While 
the hands were yet grasped there was established a 
bond of sympathy. There was no time, he thought, to 
lose. We must begin our work right there. The family 

John E. Vassar. *8 



206 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

of the depot master was nearest, and before ten min- 
utes had passed one lonely and discouraged soul, a 
wanderer from the fold, was giving out with quivering 
lip and moistened eyes her heart's secret and confiding 
depths, and we had knelt together at the heavenly 
throne. And so we went from house to house as they 
came in order, my heart fuller and fuller of sweet sur- 
prises at the swift access which the stranger friend 
acquired as by some talismanic power. 

" No professorship of pastoral care has ever taught 
our theological students what John Vassar would have 
taught them in one day's experience from house to 
house. How sad the ignorance with which our youth- 
ful ministers often go out from their long years of 
scholastic training into the common life of the people 
whose souls are committed to their charge ! 

" What a glorious power would our Christianity 
put on if in every church there should be even one 
man or woman with the spiritual energy, and motive 
and tact to use it that Uncle John possessed !" 

Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., gives us this, in 
the Evangelist : 

" John Vassar was one of the remarkable characters 
who came to the front during the civil war. With its 
religious history his name is as indelibly linked as 
the names of Chaplain McCabe, or D. L. Moody, or 
George H. Stuart. Hundreds of soldiers, when they 
read the tidings of his death, will recall the beloved old 
man, in his brown coat and soft felt hat, who used to 
tramp from tent to tent with a satchel of Bibles and 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 207 

tracts on his back. Nor did he only carry good books 
in that well-known satchel. He always had a supply 
of envelopes and postage stamps, and a needle and 
thread to mend a ragged uniform, or some knick-knack 
which soldiers always need. 

"One thing he was sure to have, and that was a 
word in season. A negro, in the army gave a capital 
description of the veteran colporteur when he said, ' I 
just tell you what I think of Uncle John ; he is a real 
Christianity. ' 

" And so he was. You could not meet John Vas- 
sar on a steamboat, or in a street car, or anywhere, 
without being kindled by his fresh, earnest talk. Even 
as Jacob brought the smell of the barley-field and the 
vineyard in his garments, so this good old man carried 
the flavor of his religion with him wherever he went. 

" Sometimes during his visits to Brooklyn he used 
to drop into our church prayer-meeting and modestly 
take his seat by the door. We were always sure to 
hear from him, and his words were nails in a sure 
place. He always illustrated what power there is in 
Christian laymen when they will ' witness ' freely and 
on all fit occasions for their divine Master. To-day 
this land needs a hundred thousand Vassars to supple- 
ment the work of the pulpit and the Sabbath-school. 

" Dear old Uncle John has reached his last bivouac. 
The tireless frame that scoured the prairies of Illinois, 
and the camps of the Union armies, and the rural 
regions of North Carolina and Virginia, and the ever* 
glades of Florida, is .smoothed to its last quiet sleep. 



208 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR, 

The soldiers and the negro freedmen will bless his 
memory. And many a polished pastor and profound 
scholar may at the last great day envy the crown and 
the reward of that sturdy minister in homespun — brave 
John Vassar." 

Rev. Charles S. Hageman, D.D., of Nyack, N. Y., 
but long pastor of the Second Reformed Church, 
Poughkeepsie, has this to say : 

" John Vassar was known to me personally for at 
least twenty-five years. I have been with him often 
and much in Christian work. We have labored to- 
gether in revival work, and talked and planned for the 
extension of that work. He was always the same — ' a 
man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,' never de- 
spondent, always hopeful. 

" One thing seemed to occupy his thoughts and to 
engross his life, and that one thing was the salvation of 
sinners and the glory of God. You could not meet 
him even on the street for five minutes without seeing 
what was the great absorbing interest of his soul. 

" He was very careful and prudent in what he did. 
He had great respect for the ministry, and always 
sought on entering a place to secure first of all their 
counsel and co-operation. 'Brother Hageman,' he 
would say, ' the ministry is God's appointment for 
saving men, and nothing can take its place. Whatever 
other evangelistic agencies may be employed, the 
preached Word is and will remain the great power 
unto salvation.' He frequently came into my study to 
talk with me about the Lord's work, and always before 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 



209 



parting he would propose a season of prayer. I was 
always glad to join in it, his heart was so mellow with 
love to Christ and for souls, and he so wrestled at the 
mercy-seat in my behalf. 

" All the glory of every thing accomplished he gave 
to God. I never heard a word from his lips that could 
be interpreted to mean the glorifying of himself. Self 
was lost. in love for Christ. 

" In parting from him I cannot but say, ' Well 
done, good and faithful servant.' May the mantle of 
the father fall upon the children. May I not add, 
upon the ministry of Christ ?" 

Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., D.D., rector of the 
Church of the Holy Trinity, New York, and one of 
Uncle John's warmest friends, adds the following tes- 
timony : 

"The Gospel Tent," New York City. 

" Uncle John Vassar in the Gospel Tent ! Who 
can describe him ? Who among us was able to com- 
prehend him ? What memories of his fidelity and ten- 
derness still abide among us ! Wonderful old man ! 
1 When shall we see thy like again ? ' His was an 
almost inconceivable zeal, an unflagging energy, and 
these were connected with a temper as tender as that 
of a child. 

" This special work to which I am about to allude 
was really begun in the fall of 1875, as an effort pre- 
paratory to the Hippodrome services of Messrs. Moody 
and Sankey. But it long survived its occasion. At 
the close of the Moody meetings the same kind of 



210 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

labor was employed in the Church of the Holy Trin- 
ity, and Uncle John was our leader. But as summer 
approached we purchased and pitched the Gospel Tent. 
It was circular in form, one hundred feet in diameter, 
and forty-five feet high at the central pole. It had a 
seating capacity of two thousand persons, though by 
the use of the " much grass" in the adjoining lots, addi- 
tional hundreds were often brought under the influence 
of the Gospel as preached from its platform. During 
four months our friend and brother continued his min- 
istry in connection with this tabernacle. Its seals re- 
main with us to this day. Scores were by him led to 
the Lord, and hundreds were helped and comforted by 
his apt words of encouragement and consolation. 

" I shall never forget the early morning prayer- 
meeting on June nth, 1876, when we dedicated the 
tent to the worship of Jesus. The day was bright and 
cool. There was a benediction in the breath of the 
morning air. Uncle John seemed to perceive it. 
When I asked him to make the prayer of dedication — 
before we ran the flag bearing the words ' The Gospel 
Tent ' to the perch of the central pole — his heart was 
greatly enlarged. I have no doubt that he had spent 
a large portion of the previous night in intercession for 
the work. His words were mighty as he implored a 
Divine blessing. But when his voice was toned to 
thanksgiving, it seemed to us as though we should lose 
him in a rapture. With wonder we were led with 
Elisha to say, • O my father ! my father !' 

" At every succeeding daily service, noon and 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 211 

night, he was always on the platform and in the in- 
quiry room. His keen eye watched the congregation 
during preaching, and immediately at its close he was 
by the side of some anxious soul whose interest he had 
through spiritual discernment detected. And how 
gentle was he with such ! No shepherd ever carried 
lambs more tenderly in his arms. During the day- 
time he spent the hours in visitation. The thermometer 
marked 90 very often, but he was undaunted. His 
physical disorders might well have excused him, but the 
spirit compelled the flesh to 'go about doing good.' 
The. success of this tent work, under God, was largely 
due to his untiring labor. 

' The quaint things which he said and did have 
their place among our memorabilia. I remember his 
criticism upon a very devout woman who had aided 
us greatly in the work of the tent. The epithet is 
always suggested by a sight of her face. ■ Beloved/ he 
said, ' that good woman is a chunk of rock salt.' On 
the only occasion when an Episcopal minister of High 
Church tendencies preached in the tent, Uncle John was 
very much excited. He rejoiced in spirit that Christ 
was preached in any way. A true Pauline joy he had. 
His ejaculations through the sermon somewhat dis- 
turbed the preacher, but the good man could not repress 
them. And when the sermon was concluded, Uncle 
John prayed — and such a prayer ! It gathered up 
every possible want, and especially wrestled for a 
blessing upon the preacher, who was greatly overcome 
by its sincerity and intensity. But it was such a shock 



212 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

to the preacher's churchly prejudices that he disap- 
peared as soon as the prayer was concluded. To the 
day of his death Uncle John had no truer admirer 
than that man. 

' This sketch of a noble and self-sacrificing work is 
most unsatisfactory to me, but the space at my dis- 
posal permits nothing more. Heaven is to me more 
real since this good man has gone. He lived in heaven 
even while he walked on earth. The savor of his 
holy life among us is a most sweet and sanctifying 
memory. May God grant us grace to live and 
labor like him, and then join him in his well-earned 
rest." 

It is eminently fitting that a resident of Pough- 
keepsie should tell of the estimate put upon the man 
and his work at home ; so let the senior pastor of the 
city, Dr. F. B. Wheeler, put the following testimonial 
on the closing pages of this book. 

" Poughkeepsie is honored in having been the 
birthplace and residence of John E. Vassar — the 
place where he was born into the kingdom of God's 
grace, and whence he went into the kingdom of God's 
glory. 

" This city caught the first fervor of his new life, 
and witnessed the earnest, heroic sacrifices of his first 
consecration. Here he began to pray. Here he put 
on the armor of a true Christian knighthood. Here 
began those labors which widened with the years into 
the most substantial and blessed results. From this 
city the sower went forth to sow beside all waters, and 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 213 

from it the sower and reaper ascended laden with 
sheaves. 

' We feel that we have been like the two disciples 
to whom the Lord joined Himself in their morning 
walk. ' Their eyes were holden that they should not 
know Him.' So we, though we saw the shining of 
His face, and were stirred by His words, and were 
borne on the breath of His prayers, and were made 
familiar with His simple and unworldly life, scarcely 
knew the man till he vanished from our sight. We 
find ourselves dwelling upon his character with feelings 
akin to reverence, and marvel at that grace of God 
which made possible and real such a life — a life so 
closely patterned after our blessed Lord that, as we 
think of it, it rises before us as an incarnation of saintly 
tenderness. The writer of these lines knew him in- 
timately for the last twenty years of his life, and knew 
him as a man of clean integrity, catholic in spirit, an 
enthusiasm that many waters could not quench, and a 
piety of wonderful fervor and fragrance. 

" Love for the Lord Christ and for souls was the 
master, consuming passion of his life. During these 
years of our acquaintance he was occupied in fields 
remote, but from his exhausting labors he would fre- 
quently return to gather up and rebind the activities 
which had been so severely taxed, in the quiet of his 
Poughkeepsie home. But the man of God, instead 
of resting, would throw himself into our religious 
movements with such a flame of devotion as to make 
his presence like the Shekinah of God's glory. Again 



2i 4 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

and again at such times my knowledge of his return 
would first be had by his presence in my study, with 
the earnest inquiry, * How is it with dear old Pough- 
keepsie ? ' And then, after a few words of his grow- 
ing experience and enlarging views, he would say, 
1 Let us have a season of prayer/ falling upon his 
knees, pouring out such utterances as lifted one into 
the very presence of God. From these interviews he 
would go forth into the streets and homes of the city, 
beseeching men to be reconciled to God. With us, as 
elsewhere, he was the man of one idea, to which all 
things were subordinated. The Lord Christ was ever 
in his thoughts, and His praise upon his lips. For 
reasons that are obvious, he labored more abundantly, 
and with larger success, abroad than in Poughkeepsie. 
Measurably of him it was true as of others, ' A pro- 
phet is not without honor save in his own country ; ' 
but for all that, there was no man in Poughkeepsie 
more respected and beloved than John E. Vassar. He 
lived and died among us as a man of unquestioned 
piety, to whom all gave honor. 

" It was not hard for him to get at men — he found 
his way straight to their hearts. His words awakened 
no opposition, and roused no argument, such was 
the tenderness of his appeals and the manly consist- 
ency of his life. I think the general conviction here, 
for years, ever since his conversion, has been that, 
however it might be with other men, piety with John 
E. Vassar was a living fact. And yet there was noth- 
ing morose and forbidding about the man. Loving 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 215 

and gentle in all his ways, he drew you to himself in- 
the sweetest and most perfect of confidences. Better 
than this, he so put the loving Lord before you that 
you felt you could almost see the face that once was 
marred, and grasp the dear hand that was pierced for 
your sins. 

" His religion had none of the weakness of mere 
sentiment, rhapsody, Or cant about it, but came upon 
you like a strong, fresh breath from the everlasting 
hills of God. In it strength and beauty were so 
mingled as to constitute a sturdy and attractive char- 
acter. 

11 But it was the simplicity of the man, and his self- 
renouncing, that commended him to all and made him 
a wonderful force. Whatever came from his efforts, 
he was accustomed to speak of it as God-produced, 
through the feeblest instrumentality — all of God and 
through God — he nothing but a poor sinner saved by 
grace. Whatever formulated religious belief he had 
was pre-eminently Biblical in matter and form, for 
with him the Word of God was ultimate and supreme 
authority. The type of his religion was apostolic from 
core to surface. As to the Lord Jesus, he crowned 
Him Lord of lords and King of kings, giving to Him 
without stint the homage of an undivided and loyal 
heart. 

" He was not a great man in the ordinary reckon- 
ing of greatness. His education was limited, his per- 
sonal presence not commanding, and in intellectual 
grasp and genius he was inferior to many men ; but in 



216 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

those spiritual characteristics which make a man a 
prince with God, few were his equals. 

" Among the pleasant memories of my life is my 
acquaintance with this saint. Among the sweet and 
lifting hopes that reach beyond the shadows is that of 
greeting him again. Poughkeepsie will cherish the 
memory of that Vassar whose munificence founded a 
college, and it will not forget that other Vassar who 
lived and walked with God — the man who has turned 
many to righteousness, who has given to the world a 
most signal illustration of the power of a Christian 
faith. He was twice born in Poughkeepsie ; he lived 
here, here he died, and here his mortal dust sleeps. 
Herein is honor for which we thank God, counting this 
honor inferior to none other which God has given us. 
1 The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the peo- 
ple, that this man was born there. ' 

" Gone at last, to be with Jesus, 

Lord of life, and Prince of peace ; 
Through his loving-kindness precious, 

Found from sorrow glad release. 
Darkness all now disappearing, 

Comes the bright eternal day, 
With its light forever shining 

Cloud and night have passed away. 

" Lo, the King in all his glory 

Greets the servant in the skies ; 
Visions of surpassing beauty 

Flash upon him in surprise. 
Oh ! the beatific meeting 

Of the glorified above, 
One, who long in labor serving, 

Wrought with zeal and burning love. 



SERVICE REVIEWED. 217 

" Brother, hail ! forever ransomed 

From the thrall of earthly care ; 

Cross and burden now abandoned, 

Robes majestic thou dost wear ; 

Royal harvests yet shall greet thee 

From the fields that thou hast wrought — 
Souls arrested, brought to glory, 
By the lessons thou hast taught. 

"F. B. W." 

" POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y., 1879." 

And now this life thus outlined we leave to speak. 
To speak for Christ, to speak to men. Many hands 
have helped to sketch it. Possibly some features may 
appear to have been overdrawn. To eulogize, how- 
ever, or in the last degree exaggerate, has been neither 
the desire nor the design. To present the man just as 
he was has been the steady aim. And that not that 
he might be magnified, but " to the praise of the glory 
of His grace." 

It has been the hope and prayer that through the 
man his Master be seen — that Master who made him 
what he was. 

The beauty of holiness, and the blessedness of ser- 
vice, and the grandeur of sacrifice, are the lessons of 
his life. 

This is the call which it sounds in the ears of every 
soldier of the Lord : Sink self out of sight in Christ. 
Warn, persuade, entreat men to be reconciled to God. 
Pray, wrestle, believe, and through the might of the 
indwelling Spirit turn others from sin to righteousness, 
and thus thin perdition and people Paradise. 

John E. Vassar. I 9 



218 UNCLE JOHN VASSAR. 

So shall the heart keep full of holy joy, 

So shall life look bright from a dying bed, 

So shall the wandering and the lost be found, 

So shall the Father be glorified, 

So shall the Son see of the travail of His* soul. 

" Let us draw their mantles o'er us 
Which have fallen in our way. 

Let us do the work before us 
Calmly, bravely, while we may ; 

Ere the long night-silence cometh 
And with us it is not day." 



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